Psycological Assessment

"Psychological Assessment"

Psychological assessment is when you assess and evaluate information that you give to the examiner ("psychological" 1). Psychological assessment is also known as psychological testing. You give this information either in the form of answers to interview questions or as answers on paper--or on a computer--to specific questions. Ultimately, a test's accuracy depends on how carefully and seriously you answer the questions you're asked ("psychological" par. 1). There are four types of psychological assessments I will focus on: intelligence tests, achievement tests, aptitude tests, and personality tests.

Intelligence is something that helps us adapt to the environment and meet life's challenges. According to the textbook, an intelligence quotient also know as an IQ score is an intelligence test score that for people of average intelligence should be near 100 (125). Intelligence tests attempts to measure your intelligence, or your basic ability to understand the world around you ("psychology" par. 3). In addition, a man by the name of Alfred Whitehead notes that intelligence "enables the individual to profit by error without being slaughtered by it" (par. 3). In other words it measures a person's capability, not what they learned. There are also different types of Intelligence tests. One Intelligence test is Woodcock Johnson "Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-III-06). There are two types of these tests; one is Wechsler Intelligence Test for children IV. (WISC.IV) and the other type is Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III. (WAIS III.). Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children determines a persons verbal comprehension, which is a persons ability to use language, understand how the world thinks, and express him or herself. It also determines perceptual reasoning, which refers to a person's ability to use non-verbal reasoning, to solve hands-on problems, whose solution to acquire accurate visual perception and manipulation of visual acclamation. The Intelligence Test lastly determines the processing speed and a full scale IQ score.

Other tests such as achievement tests and aptitude tests are usually seen in educational or employment settings, and they attempt to measure either how much you know about a certain topic (i.e., your achieved knowledge), such as mathematics or spelling, or how much of a capacity you have (i.e., your aptitude) to master material in a particular area, such as mechanical relationships ("psychology" 3). Both aptitude tests and achievement tests are two types of Standardized tests, which are commonly used in school settings ("Educational" 523). In addition, achievement tests specifically measure the amount of knowledge or skill, a person has acquired in the basic academic areas form instruction. According to the book, achievement tests should be constructed in keeping with sex principles: they should measure clearly defined learning objectives, measure a representative sample of the learning tasks included in instruction, include the types of test items most appropriate for measuring the desired learning outcomes, fit the uses that will be made of the results, be as reliable as possible and be interpreted with caution, and improve learning (511, par. 2). Two examples of achievement tests are the woodcock Johnson "tests of achievement Iii (WJ-III ACH) and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II (WIAI-2). Group based tests of ability and achievement are tests ministered to all the students as a group. Percentile, for example, is the percentage of one's peers, that one performed equally to or better. There are also norm-referenced and criterion-referenced achievement tests. Norm-referenced achievement test are assessments of a student's knowledge of a particular content area, such as mathematics, reading, or Spanish ("educational" 523, par.2). Also criterion-referenced achievement test assesses a student's knowledge of subject matter ("educational"