PSY240: - L5

Reading §

• Differentiate between psychological testing and psychological assessment and describe the importance of this distinction
  • Psychological testing involves gathering a sample of behaviour to determine a set of scores on a given measure. Psychometrically strong (i.e., reliable and valid) psychological tests contribute to a well-rounded psychological assessment. Psychological assessment plays an important role in abnormal psychology, providing a comprehensive system for describing an individual’s psychological profile. A psychological test provides a piece of information that must be integrated and evaluated within the context of other information to create a thorough psychological assessment
• Explain the importance of reliability and validity in clinical assessment.
  • Reliability and validity are important for both research and clinical assessment. Having measurement tools that are reliable and valid helps ensure that clinicians can consistently measure what they are hoping to, and are measuring what they think they are measuring.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of clinical versus actuarial prediction
  • The debate between clinical and actuarial prediction has continued for years. It involves the contrast between clinicians’ professional experience and intuition versus statistical procedures and empirical methods in clinical decision making. Both clinical and actuarial prediction have benefits and limitations
  • Biogically based procedures used in the study of psychological problems include EEG, CT scan, MRI, and PET. Although the results of most brain imaging assessments cannot be used to help in diagnoses, aside from circumstances in which there is obvious neurological impairment, they have contributed greatly to research.
  • A number of neuropsychological tests are used to study brain–behaviour relationships, including the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, and the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test.
  • Clinical interviews have always been an integral part of any psychological assessment, and more structured components have been recently developed to reduce bias
  • IQ tests were the first psychological tests to gain wide acceptance, and they do a fairly good job of predicting school performance. IQ tests with good psychometric properties also readily distinguish between individuals who are intellectually gifted, individuals who have learning disabilities, and individuals with intellectual disabilities
  • Projective tests, initially based on psychoanalytic theory, were the first personality tests. The Rorschach inkblot test and Thematic Apperception Test are two examples of projective tests. However, actuarial personality tests like the MMPI-2, MCMI-IV, and PAI, based on more psychometrically sound procedures, have become more favoured among clinicians. Behavioural and cognitivebehavioural assessment techniques have become widely accepted. Most of these tests focus on specific behaviour problems (e.g., risk of suicide, level of depression, ability to concentrate) rather than on the whole range of personality functioning.
• Compare and contrast structured versus unstructured interviews and describe circumstances in which you might favour one format over the other
  • Both structured and unstructured interviews have advantages and disadvantages. Semi-structured interviews provide a nice balance between facilitating rapport with clients while affording standardization and reliability.
• Define what an “experiment” is and explain what differentiates it from non-experimental research methods
  • The controlled experiment is not always possible in human research for ethical and logistical reasons. However, quasi-experimental and correlational research can provide a great deal of insight into human behaviour. Although not as scientifically rigorous, case studies and single-subject research designs can raise important questions and may point the way to more controlled research. Family, adoption, twin, and gene–environment interaction studies offer valuable insight into the relative contribution of heredity and the environment. Experiments differ from these other forms of non-experimental research in that they manipulate variables, randomly assign participants to experimental and control groups, and can draw clear inferences about cause and effect
• Explain why it is important to consider clinical significance in addition to statistical significance
  • Recently, researchers have stressed that it is not enough to simply demonstrate statistically significant results of an intervention. The more important question is whether the treatment offers meaningful relief of the distress or difficulty of people with psychopathology. Research now recognizes the importance of examining both statistical and clinical significance when determining if a treatment is effective and will be useful in the real world.

Lecture §

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• Assessment: What leads to a good diagnosis in psychology
  • Good Testing -> Good Assessment -> Good diagnosis
  • Psychological assessment, a systematic gathering and evaluation of information for target individual
    • History, referral information, behavioural observations, and life of an individual
  • Psychological test provides a sample of information that must be integrated and evaluated within the context
• Assessment: What are the 4 measures of Reliability and Validity, and how do they differ?
  • Reliability
    1. Test-retest reliability
       • The degree to which a test of a stable trait or characteristic generates the same results when it is given more than once to the same person
    2. Alternate-form reliability
       • Two versions of the same test are designed and scores from each are correlated with one another
    3. Internal consistency
       • The degree of reliability within a test; one measure is split-half reliability, which compares responses on odd numbers to responses on even numbers
    4. Coefficient alpha
       • Calculated by averaging the intercorrelations of all items within a test
  • Validity
    1. Face validity
       • Means that the items on a test resemble the characteristics of the concept being measured
    2. Content validity
       • Requires that the test’s items reflect all behaviours believed to be related to the overall construct
    3. Criterion validity
       • Rises because some qualities are easier to recognize than to define completely
    4. Construct validity
       • Refers to validity of a test within a specific theoretical framework
• Assessment: What are the two factors the biological assessment examines:
  1. Medical conditions (why is medical condition first measured and eliminated)
     • Anxiety & Depression: thyroid dysfunction, estrogen dominance, auto-immune disorders, toxic mold poisoning
     • Some cases physical symptoms of psychological disorder may appear but not cognitive symptoms
  2. Structure and function of the brain (why need to examine these?)
     • Imaging (EEG, CAT, MRI, PET)
       • Test for if tumor is the cause of psychological dysfunction
       • Schizophrenia: might have structure damage in the brain MRI can demonstrate this
     • Neuropsychological testing
       • Bender Gestalt Visual-Motor Test
         • Task: copy images from a card and then from memory
         • Need stills to interpret the writing
         • Alzheimer: Screens for the possible presence of neuropsychological impairment
       • Batteries such as the Halstead-Reitan & Luria-Nebraska
• Assessment: What are the 3 common type of clinical interviews
  1. Structured interviews such as the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, version IV (DIS-IV)
     • Cannot change the order of the questions to ensure Validity
  2. Semi-structured interviews such as the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders provide an outline of what to cover, while still allowing leeway
  3. Rating scales can be used in assessment to measure the severity of a disorder
• Assessment: Intelligence assessments ^5fadbd
  • Test Measure
    • 
    • Abnornal: $2sd$ up OR down:
    • Profound: (10-25) | Severe (25-40) | Moderate (40-55) | Mild (55-70)
  • Of all psychological traits, IQ shows the most stability (being resistant to change)
  • Related Tests
    • Stanford -Binet Scales
    • David Wechsler|Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
    • David Wechsler|Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
    • David Wechsler|Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI)
      • Starts at 2.5 years old
  • What does it really predict?
    • Academic performance: about $0.5-0.7$ correlation
    • Occupation, job performance, health, income, life satisfaction
  • What else is important (other than IQ)?
    • Self-discipline (better predictor for academic performance)
    • Education (double-way correlation)
• Assessment: Personality Assessments from (PSY230)
  • Projective Tests
    • Based on Psychodynamic perspective
    • The Rorschach Inkblot Test
    • Thematic Apperception Test
  • Standardized Tests
    • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)
      • A profile of personality characteristics compared to psychiatric and non-psychiatric groups
    • Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI)
      • Make diagnostic judgments about personality disorders and other clinical syndromes
    • Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI)
      • Assess symptoms
      • Scales: 11 clinical + 4 validity + 5 treatment-consideration + 2 interpersonal
• Assessment: What are the 2 (each) behavioural and cognitive assessment?
  • Behavioural
    1. Observational techniques
    2. Rating scales are used to assess various behaviours and changes in behaviours over time.
  • Cognitive
    1. Questionnaires assessing your thoughts
    2. Self-monitoring: note their own behaviours in real time
       • Smartphone diary applications
• Research Method: Experimental Method
  • Manipulation of certain variables (independent variables) and determining what effects these manipulations have on other variables (dependent variables)
  • True experiment: subjects are randomly assigned to experimental or control groups
  • Noise
    • Pretest can tell us whether an observed difference between experimental conditions at posttest may have been due to pre-existing differences between groups
    • Double-blind procedure: deal with placebo effect
  • Quasi-Experiment
    • Participants in the experimental group are not randomly assigned but are selected on the basis of certain characteristics and there is no manipulation of independent variables
    • Limits: Cause-effect inferences, difficult to match participants on all factors except for the one that is the subject of the research
  • Correlational Research
    • Degree and strength of relationship between two variables
    • In Social Psychology: $r>0.3$ is counted as interesting and meaningful
• Research Method: Epidemiological research
  • Incidence and prevalence of disorders in a given population
  • Incidence: the number of new cases of a disorder in a particular population over a specified time period
  • Prevalence: the frequency of a disorder in a population at a given point in time

Question §

• How does language correlated with IQ (does this mean IQ has “preference” over some system of language or does this mean that certain language system has a “better” logical system
• Sample question for Quiz?