Psychological Testing
Psychological testing is called as the psychological assessment. It makes use of information given by individuals to determine his/her behavior. The psychological testing is termed technically as psychometrics. By observation of the individuals in performing task over a long period of time, often with a great deal of research into response of a member in a group. When this is done as multiple tests then the procedure is called as full battery assessment.
The best psychological testing should satisfy/measure both the validness and reliable (doing things consistently).
Types of psychological evaluation
IQ/achievement tests
Among norm-referenced test the IQ test and the achievement test are the most popular test for most of the peoples. In this test a series of task are performed to the person who is being evaluated and the answer of the person are graded accordingly with the guidelines. Once the test is completed the answer or the result is evaluated and the result is compared with the norm group at the same age and the grade level is evaluated.
IQ tests like WAIS-III, WISC-IV, K-BIT and the achievement tests like WAIT , WRAT are being designed an individuals or to a group of people. The individual administered test will be comprehensive, more valid, and more reliable and generally better psychometric characters when compared to group- administered tests. The need for a trained administrator makes the individual test to be more expensive to administer an the work is limited with a single person.
Neuropsychological tests
Neuropsychological tests are designed specially to measure the psychological function that is linked to the brain or its pathway.
This test is done after the injury or illness which may affect the neurocognitive functioning. It may also used in research to measure the difference in some neuropsychological ability between the experimental groups.
Personality tests
Psychological measures are the personality which is often described either as objective tests or projective tests. The objective tests have restricted response format such as true or false answers. Some of the examples in objective personality tests include Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III, Child Behavior Checklist or the Abika Test. The projective testing usually allows freer type of response. The term objective test and projective test have come latest under the criticism in the Journal of Personality Assessment. There remains the controversy in the value and validity of the projective testing. The report and the free response measures are used in contemporary psychological assessment practice.
Direct observation tests
Even though most psychological testing involves rating scale or response measures. The psychological assessments also involve the complete observation of people's activities. The direct type of assessments is usually conducted with families in a research center or at home or with the children in a classroom. The main purpose may be clinical so as to establish pre-intervention baseline of a hyperactive or to observe the nature of a parent-child interaction to know a relational disorder. In many research the direct observation is done to explore the sequence of behavioral interaction.
Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II is a best example of a direct observation practice that is used with school-age children and parents. The parents and children are videotaped playing at a make-believe zoo. The Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment is used to study parents and infants through toddlers and involves a feeding and a puzzle task. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery is used to bring out narratives from children. The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-II tracks the extent to which children follow the guidelines of parents and vice versa.
