1
Chapter 1: Psychological Testing and Assessment
Cohen: Psychological Testing and Assessment, 9e
Chapter 1
Psychological Testing and Assessment
Brief Chapter Outline
I. Testing and Assessment
• Began in France, 1905, Alfred Binet published a test to place Paris
schoolchildren in appropriate classrooms.
• WWI- created a need for screening recruits for intellectual/emotional
problems
• By the end of the war there were tests to measure several psychological
variables such as: intelligence, personality, brain functioning, performance at
work, & other psychological/social functioning.
A. Psychological Testing and Assessment Defined
• During WWI- “testing” was a broadly used term to describe the entire testing
process from the administration of tests (“testing” in progress) to the
interpretation (“testing” indicated that…)
• By WWII- semantic distinction emerges and creates the inclusive term
“assessment”
ASSESSMENT CENTER- An organizationally standardized procedure for evaluation
involving multiple assessment techniques.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING- The process of measuring psychology-related variables by
means of devices of procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT- The gathering and integration of psychology-related
data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation that is accomplished through tools
such as tests, interviews, case studies, behaviorial observation, & specially designed
apparatuses and measurement procedures.
Varieties of assessment
• The term “assessment” can be modified in an endless number of ways, with
each modification referring to an area of assessment
EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT- Refers to the use of tests & tools to evaluate abilities
and skills relevant to success or failure in a school or pre-school context.
• Ex: intelligence tests, achievement tests, & reading comprehension
RETROSPECTIVE ASSESSMENT– The use of evaluative tools to draw conclusions about
psychological aspects of a person as they existed at some point in time prior to the
assessment.
REMOTE ASSESSMENT- The use of tools of psychological evaluation to gather data &
draw conclusions about a subject who isn’t in physical proximity to the person cuducting the
evaluation.
ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY ASSESSMENT (EMA)-The “in the moment” of specific
problems & related cognitive and behaviorial variables at the time & place they occur.
2
Chapter 1: Psychological Testing and Assessment
The process of assessment
• Begins w/a referral (questions) from one of the following:
o Teacher. School psychologist, Judge, Clinician. Etc
• After assessment, assessor writes up feedback answering referral questions
COLLABORATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT– The assessor and assesse may
work as “partners” from initial contact to final feeback.
THEAPUTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESMENT- A subsequent technique to
collaborative psycholological assesement in which therapeutic self-discovery and new
understandings are encouraged throughout the assessment process.
DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT- An interactive approach to psychological assessment that
usually follows a model of 1. Evaluation 2. Intervention & 3. Evaluation
*provides a means for evaluating how the assesse benefits from some type of intervention
during the course of evaluation.
*not only measures “learing” but also “learning potential”
II. The Tools of Psychological Assessment
A. The Test
TEST- A measuring device or procedure
PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST- Refers to a device or procedure designed to measure
variables related to psychology (intelligence, personaility, aptitude, interests, attitudes or
values).
