 Differentiate psychological testing and psychological assessment 

From Cohen Swerdlik’s book of Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction to

Tests and Measurement 7th Edition: We define psychological assessment as the gathering and
integration of psychology - related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation
that is accomplished through the use of tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral
observation, and specially designed apparatuses and measurement procedures. We define
psychological testing as the process of measuring psychology-related variables by means of
devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior.
Psychological testing is a standard procedure of measurement designed to measure
characteristics, abilities, personality etc. Psychological tests are written, visual or verbal
evaluations administered to assess the cognitive and emotional functioning of children and
adults.
Psychological assessment is a process that involves the integration of information from multiple
sources, such as tests related to ability, intelligence, interests or attitudes as well as information
from personal interviews.
So it can be also said that psychological testing collects one aspects of information while
psychological assessment covers every aspects of collection of information.
The assessment process combines and evaluates all the information gathered about an
individual while test provides only a part of the picture about a person.
Testing and assessment have been important foundations of counseling and applied psychology.
Tests have important roles both as tools to facilitate the goals of counseling and for assessment.

 Identify the psychological functions that may be subjected to psychological testing

(www.psychologyinfo.com/treatment/testing.html)
Psychological testing covers a number of different areas:
Mental health assessment - A mental health assessment includes information about a person’s
medical history, their family history, and the current status of their mental health. The
assessment helps identify if there are any mental health issues present, and determine a
diagnosis and treatment accordingly.
A psychologist or psychiatrist is likely to start an appointment with a mental health assessment,
which will enable them to correctly diagnose and treat you.
Adaptive behavior assessments - This measures the social and practical skills of a person, to
determine their ability to function on a daily basis at home, school or work; and are usually
conducted along with cognitive tests. For example, it may be used to assess a child’s ability to
function in social activities with other students in school.

Aptitude testing - An aptitude test measures a person’s ability to perform different kinds of
tasks. This is done to determine the areas in which their skills are the strongest. Some people
may be better with quantitative tasks that require math and logical reasoning skills, some at
language, and some at creative thinking.
These tests are used by vocational therapists to measure ability, and figure out the kind of
professions or job roles a person may be suited for. They may also be used by career counselors
to guide people towards higher education in fields where they demonstrate high ability.

Cognitive testing - A cognitive test measures a person’s cognitive abilities— problem solving,
reasoning, vocabulary, comprehension, and memory. They are more commonly known as
intelligence or IQ tests, and are used in the field of education to identify a person’s strengths
and potential.
For instance, a child may be given a cognitive test to measure their ability in different subjects;
allowing educators to help the child work on the subjects they’re having trouble with.

Educational/achievement testing - Educational testing is conducted to test how much an

individual has progressed in learning a specific subject—like mathematics, reading
comprehension—to identify any difficulties they may have had in it.
Achievement tests are the examinations that students take in schools and colleges.

Forensic psychological testing - Forensic testing is used in the legal field, to determine whether a
suspect is capable of committing the crime they have been accused of. It comprises cognitive,
personality, and neuropsychological tests.

Neuropsychological testing - Neuropsychological tests analyze how an individual’s brain works,

in order to identify any problems in its functioning. For instance, a person with a head injury
 may have to undergo neuropsychological tests to check their brain’s ability to retain
information.

Personality assessment - A personality test focuses on the personality traits of an individual. It

helps evaluate if a person is more introverted or extroverted, cautious or spontaneous, and how
they may react or respond to various life situations.

Interpretation of psychological tests - Psychological tests are not meant to be interpreted

without the context of the person being tested—their environment, socioeconomic status or
physical health. While the tests do use scientifically verified scales, using its results as a stand-
alone criteria can lead to misinterpretation.
For example, in the case of a blood work report—it is necessary for a doctor to read the
numbers in relation to your symptoms and general physical health to arrive at an accurate
diagnosis.
Similarly, it’s important to note that even though many of the psychological tests mentioned
above are easily available on the internet, taking them without consulting a mental health
professional may not lead to getting an actual analysis of your personality, aptitude or behavior.
This in turn, could mean not getting the help you need.

 Discuss the factors influencing the soundness of testing  (reliability, standardization, validity,
practicality or utility)
Cohen Swerdlik’s book of Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction to Tests and
Measurement 7th Edition: In the language of psychometrics, reliability refers to consistency in
measurement. And whereas in everyday conversation reliability always connotes something
positive, in the psychometric sense it really only refers to something that is consistent—not
necessarily consistently good or bad, but simply consistent.
Reliability is the extent to which a questionnaire, test, observation or any measurement
procedure produces the same results over a period of time. 

Types of Reliability Estimates

 Test-retest reliability indicates the repeatability of test scores with the

passage of time. This estimate also reflects the stability of the characteristic
or construct being measured by the test.
 Some constructs are more stable than others. For example, an individual's
reading ability is more stable over a particular period of time than that
individual's anxiety level. Therefore, you would expect a higher test-retest
reliability coefficient on a reading test than you would on a test that measures
anxiety. For constructs that are expected to vary over time, an acceptable
test-retest reliability coefficient may be lower than is suggested in Table 1.

 Alternate or parallel form reliability indicates how consistent test scores

are likely to be if a person takes two or more forms of a test.

A high parallel form reliability coefficient indicates that the different forms of
the test are very similar which means that it makes virtually no difference
which version of the test a person takes. On the other hand, a low parallel
form reliability coefficient suggests that the different forms are
probably not comparable; they may be measuring different things and
therefore cannot be used interchangeably.

 Inter-rater reliability indicates how consistent test scores are likely to be if

the test is scored by two or more raters.

On some tests, raters evaluate responses to questions and determine the

score. Differences in judgments among raters are likely to produce variations
in test scores. A high inter-rater reliability coefficient indicates that the
judgment process is stable and the resulting scores are reliable.

Inter-rater reliability coefficients are typically lower than other types of

reliability estimates. However, it is possible to obtain higher levels of inter-
rater reliabilities if raters are appropriately trained.

 Internal consistency reliability indicates the extent to which items on a

test measure the same thing.

A high internal consistency reliability coefficient for a test indicates that the
items on the test are very similar to each other in content (homogeneous). It
is important to note that the length of a test can affect internal consistency
reliability. For example, a very lengthy test can spuriously inflate the
reliability coefficient.

Tests that measure multiple characteristics are usually divided into distinct
components. Manuals for such tests typically report a separate internal
consistency reliability coefficient for each component in addition to one for the
whole test.

Test manuals and reviews report several kinds of internal consistency

reliability estimates. Each type of estimate is appropriate under certain
circumstances. The test manual should explain why a particular estimate is
reported.
 Standardization establishes a set precedence, therefore enhancing an assignment, test or
projects’ reliability.  The use of uniform procedures in the administration of tests to ensure that
all participants are scoring the same results under the same conditions. It is important that the
tests are administered and scored according to the same rules and procedures.
In essence, this type of standardization tries to reduce the influence of any extraneous variable
on the test or experimental performance of participants. If procedures are not standardized,
this will affect reliability and internal validity and result in biased findings.

Cohen Swerdlik’s book of Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction to Tests and
Measurement 7th Edition: In the language of psychological assessment, validity is a term used
in conjunction with the meaningfulness of a test score—what the test score truly means.
Validity is defined as, the extent to which the instrument measures what it sets out to measure.
Teachers must identify the expected learning outcomes and goals of the course in order to
appropriately assess student work. 

Practicality refers to the action of the assessment method and its relevance to the overall
learning goals in the course. It also addresses whether or not the workload for the instructor is
reasonable. Practicality in assessment means that the test is easy to design, easy to administer
and easy to score. No matter how valid or reliable a test is, it has to be practical to make and to
take this means that: It is economical to deliver. It is not excessively expensive

 Familiarize and describe the standardized procedures in test administration

(https://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/tmrs_rg/AdministrationPractices.pdf)
From what I learned in Zucker et al’s Administration Practices for Standardized Assessments:
The goal of this uniformity is to make the assessment’s results as objective as possible so that
they can be considered valid and meaningful when used to compare the assessed qualities of
students.
The use of orderly, standardized test administration procedures is beneficial to examinees. In
particular, administration procedures designed to promote consistent conditions for all
examinees increase the exam program's fairness. Test administration procedures related to
security protect the integrity of the test items. In both of these cases, the standardization of test
administration procedures prevents some examinees from being unfairly advantaged over other
examinees.
The directions for administering for each assessment product provide specific instructions for
procedures to follow before, during, and after test administration. The examinees are each
developed and evaluated prior to test standardization. During standardization, the materials are
verified for accuracy and utility.