Psychological Assessment of the Field Paper Example

Introduction

Psychological testing and assessment involve the study of a person and his characteristics through the administration of various tests which vary from written tests, verbal tests, visual or computerized tests. Psychological testing and assessment are designed to answer fundamental questions and assumptions associated with psychological disorders, such as psychological behaviors in a person, the comparison between different people and the degree of development of these psychological behaviors. Chapter 15 addresses the Computers and Basic Psychological Science in Testing in relation to the cognitive development of behavior assessment, operant condition and how computers are used to assess behavior (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). This chapter addresses the differences between the traditional assessment procedure and cognitive behavior assessment.

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The traditional assessment focused on the causes of behavior and psychological issues while cognitive assessment of behavior analyzes and aims at changing the behavior (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). Cognitive assessment focuses on both internal factors such behaviors and external factors such environmental related causes that affect behavior. Operant conditioning is used in cognitive assessment through the positive and negative reinforcements and through consequences based assessment to change and improve the behavior of a person. However, the self-reports of cognitive assessment are always subjective and irrational in nature due to the avoidance of truth and reality and the fear to portray behavior (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). This has led to an increase in the use of computers to assess behavior. Computers have an advantage in the sense that the questions are standardized and arranged in order to cover a large area of anticipated outcomes. It offers privacy, and a patient may be tempted to offer sensitive information as compared to face to face interviews(Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). In as much as computers offer a variety of advantages, it is still impossible to assess the non-verbal cues through computers.

Assessment in Health-Care Facilities

Chapter 17 addresses assessment in health-care facilities. The main task of psychologists in any health-care facility is to use or interpret the measurements founds in the assessment procedures (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). Psychologists use these tests to assess the behavior and prescribe adequate treatment methods. Different heath facilities use different measures to assess the behaviors of patients and how they react to anxiety and stressful situations and adopt favorable methods to help them cope with their situations in their journey to treatment. This chapter introduces a new advancement in the assessment of psychological behaviors, which is clinical neuropsychology. Clinical neuropsychology involves testing the central nervous system to establish whether there are any psychological issues (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). Clinical neuropsychology uses different approaches to address the issues of cognitive psychology. These approaches include the California verbal learning test, Halstead-Retain, and Luria-Nebraska(Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017).

The second assessment involves the issues of stress and anxiety and how to cope with them. This Chapter addresses the theories of anxiety, and how it was perceived to be and the current developments of anxiety, which involves assessment from the state and the character traits (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). Assessment of stressful conditions have also been addressed and how to adapt to such conditions. People react differently to stressful conditions and society plays an essential role in helping people cope with stress. The Government also plays an important role in handling and helping people with stress through screening patients such as pregnant women for depression and including these services in health insurance (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). Health care facilities also try to improve the status and the quality of life through the services offered to patients after assessing their psychological disorders. The quality of life is assessed through the psychometric methods.

Assessment in Industrial and Business

Chapter 18 addresses the assessment in industrial workplaces and business entities. Employee selection has always been an essential part of the recruitment process and the overall output of the employee after selection (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). However, determining what type of test to administer in employee selection has always been an issue in determining what type of information that type of test will generate about the employee. Over the years, many employers have used interviews as a test for employee selection. Employers have always used the interview as a tool to assess whether the interviewee is fit for the job through the employment interviews. A lot of research has been conducted on how one should present himself in an interview, but despite this, interviews have criticized for always looking for the negative aspects rather than the positive and favorable aspects of a person (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). A person will be denied a job depending on his negative aspects, and this has led to the increase of the modern systematic selection through tests, job qualifications and completion of performance samples (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017).

This selection process is aimed at achieving the personnel psychology, and this information gathered from the tests helps in differentiating what is known by chance and what is gathered from the information. This test helps employers determine the number of qualified personnel who would otherwise be employed even without the test. This chapter addresses how utility and decision theories can be used to assess this information gathered from the tests. Personnel psychologists in industrial workplaces and business entities take a lot of factors into consideration when assessing the behaviors of people, and these include the character traits of people, the organizational culture and the interactions of people within the work environment (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). These findings help psychologists in determining people who are fit for any job selection during the employee selection process.

Regulation of Testing

Chapter 20 gives insights on how the law regulates the use of tests in assessment. The use of tests and measurements in assessment needs to be regulated, and the law comes in handy to give the minimum scores required for any test in terms of validity and reliability. In 1964, the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established by the Civil Rights Act to set out the guidelines for administration of any test and its findings on assessment (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). The Government regulates testing to ensure due process and equal protection during employee selection through the personnel procedures (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). The law provides that no employee should be discriminated on the grounds of sex, race, and religion just to mention a few.

Commercial testing companies are also regulated by the existing statutes requiring the companies to reveal the test items to the volunteers who take the tests or the patients, and provide that the tests must be rewritten frequently (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). The law also provides for standards of using tests in the assessment of children with disabilities and in the education system. The courts through lawsuits also affect the use and administration of tests and provide for other factors to consider when administering tests such as racial background, physical incapability among other things. Courts also enforce the already existing laws that regulate testing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these Chapters confirm the perceptions I had about the psychological assessment of the field and further provide additional information on assessment. Chapter 15 gives more insight on the advantages of computer assessment over the traditional assessment methods because of their standardized methods. Psychologists in health-care facilities now have the ability to assess the central nervous system of patients to establish behavioral changes. Chapter 18 provides for ways of improving employee selection in the industrial and business entities while chapter 19 addresses the regulation of testing and advice the use of EEOC in employee selection. These chapters give a good overview of how assessment is done and the regulation and use of such assessment.

References

Kaplan, R. M., & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2017). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, and issues. Nelson Education.