Psychological Testing: Psychometrics and Clinical Applications

Fulfills requirement: Psychological Testing

A working knowledge of psychological testing is important for all mental health therapists, whether they administer, score, and interpret tests themselves or whether they refer their clients for testing and review testing reports from other professionals. Psychological testing requires an appreciation for the issues involved in test development and in administration, scoring, and interpretation. In addition, psychological testing requires a fundamental understanding of psychometrics, appropriate use of norms and standardization, and identification of test bias. Mental health professionals must understand why test security is essential and be able to address the ethical and legal issues involved in competing interests for access. In addition, they must appreciate the utility of informant discrepancies and the specific competencies required in different clinical settings.

This advanced beginner to intermediate course is comprised of two sections. The first section consists of selected book chapters that review the fundamental concepts involved in psychometrics and psychological testing in an engaging way, aimed at non-mathematicians. The second section includes recent journal articles that highlight important general clinical issues and unique considerations for special populations. Topics include safeguarding test security, integrating informant discrepancies, conducting competent assessments in child custody for diverse families, assessing attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in young adults, and selecting self-report measures of anxiety and depression in late life. The course concludes with a timely article that addresses the advantages, challenges, and future directions of the rapidly growing area of digital assessment.