Basics
The person who holds the most responsibility in the assessment process
The counselor
This type of data provides the number of individuals who obtain each score on a test, showing the distribution of scores.
Frequency distribution
The legislation that requires each state to have a system for identifying and evaluating children with disabilities.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004
Correlation coefficients range from.
-1.0 to 1.0
Using a test in a manner not intended by the publisher could result in this.
Copyright infringement / legal violation
Assessments are commonly used to identify client problems and also a client’s __________.
Strengths
The spread of scores indicating variability between the highest and lowest scores.
Range
Ethical assessments require that counselors interpret results in the context of this.
Context of the client’s cultural, social, and personal background
An instrument that measures consistently but does not measure what it was designed to measure is ____.
Reliable but not valid
Assessments are most useful when they are directly linked to these counseling decisions.
Treatment planning or intervention decisions
This type of assessment is typically a questionnaire or test that measures traits or abilities using the same procedures for everyone.
Standardized assessment
A scale that ranks items in order, but the differences between ranks are not necessarily equal.
Ordinal
This landmark case established the "duty to warn," compelling mental health professionals to breach confidentiality if a client poses a serious risk of harm to themselves or others.
Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California
In Classical Test Theory, how is reliability defined?
The degree to which a score is free from random error.
Using an assessment without proper training or qualifications violates this ethical principle.
Competence
This type of assessment compares an individual’s performance to a predetermined standard or learning goal.
Criterion-referenced assessment
This type of score transformation allows counselors to compare raw test results across different measures by converting them to a standard scale with a mean of 50.
T-score
Counselors must be aware of these two laws, which governs the privacy and security of clients’ educational and health records.
FERPA & HIPAA
The type of reliability used when a scale is administered twice to the same participants.
Test-retest reliability
Think of it as 'two paths to the same destination': different test forms should produce equivalent scores, demonstrating this type of reliability.
Parallel or alternate form reliability
While both are used in assessment, this term refers to a broader tool or method for gathering information, whereas this term specifically refers to a standardized procedure that measures a psychological trait or ability.
Instrument and test
In a normal distribution, the percentage of scores within two standard deviations of the mean.
95%
When an assessment tool seems to be discriminatory or culturally biased, what should the counselor do to avoid legal or ethical issues?
Find a different assessment or adjust interpretation.
A counselor designing a new anxiety questionnaire wants to be sure it reflects every dimension of anxiety; this is one type of validity. Later, they compare scores to other established anxiety measures; this is the other type.
Content validity and construct validity
A child scored in the 25th percentile on a reading test. What does the child's score mean in relation to the norm group?
25% of the norming group had a score at or below the child's.