Domains of Psychological and Counselling Assessments

Ofole, N.M Ph.D

Department of Counselling and Human Development Studies
Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Email: nm.ofole@ui.edu.ng
stainless4god@yahoo.com

Introduction
Assessment is, most likely, not a new concept to you because the use of psychological
assessment in diverse settings is not a new phenomenon. From time immemorial workers in the
helping professions have since recognized that human being are complex and unpredictable,
and it is only through assessments that the helper will have a broader and more accurate
perspective of the client (Morel,2009). Originally, they relied on such informal methods such as
observation, anecdotal record, event sampling and work sample amongst others. However, these
are informal assessments that are based on unstructured, free-flowing interviews or observations
that are not systematic, hence the need for a formal psychological assessment. Formal
assessment involved utilizing broad range of techniques in a variety of psychotherapy which
assures the clinicians of having the appropriate information necessary for case conceptualization,
treatment planning, ongoing therapy, and tracking progress (Whiston, 2009).

Meaning of Psychological Assessment

Psychological assessment is a process that utilizes a combination of techniques to help the
psychologist arrive at some hypotheses about a person and their behaviour, personality and
capabilities. Framingham (2011) defined psychological assessment as a way of testing people
about their behaviour, personality, and capabilities to draw conclusions using combinations of
techniques. Psychological assessment is most often used in the psychiatric, medical, legal,
educational, or psychological clinic settings. Psychologists are expertly trained to perform and
interpret psychological tests. There different types of Assessments utilized for different
purposes in diverse settings. Broadly speaking, psychological assessment can be divided into
four primary types:
 Personality Assessment
 Clinical Interview
 Assessment of Intellectual Functioning (IQ)
 Behavioural Assessment
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In addition to these primary types of psychological assessment, other kinds of psychological
assessment are available for specific areas, such as aptitude or achievement in school, career or
work counseling, management skills, and career planning.

Personality Assessment
The word personality itself stems from the Latin word persona, which referred to a theatrical
mask worn by performers in order to either project different roles or disguise their identities. A
brief definition would be that personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviours that make a person unique. In addition to this, personality arises from
within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. Different personality theorists
present their own definitions of the word based on their theoretical positions (Ricardo, 2016). For
example, Feist and Feist (2009) define it as “a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique
characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behaviour. Similarly,
American Psychological Association (2016) defines personality as individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Almost every day we describe and
assess the personalities of the people around us. Whether we realize it or not, these daily musings
on how and why people behave as they do are similar to what personality psychologists do.
While our informal assessments of personality tend to focus more on individuals, personality
psychologists instead use conceptions of personality that can apply to everyone. Personality
Assessment as defined by American Psychological Association means a proficiency in
professional psychology that involves the administration, scoring, and interpretation of
empirically supported measures of personality traits and styles in order to: 
 Refine clinical diagnoses; 
 Structure and inform psychological interventions; and 
 Increase the accuracy of behavioural prediction in a variety of contexts and settings (e.g.,
clinical, forensic, organizational, educational).

Brief History of Personality Assessment

The origins of personality assessment date back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when personality
was assessed through phrenology, the measurement of the human skull, and physiognomy, which
assessed personality based on a person's outer appearances (Nezami, James & Butcher, 2000).
Goldberg (1993) noted that under the assumption of the lexical hypothesis, Francis Galton

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estimated the number of adjectives that described personality in the English dictionary. . This list
for describing personality was further expanded to 60 words by Thurstone. Through continuous
reviews Thurstone using responses from 1300 participants reduced these sixty adjectives into
five common factors. This procedure of factor analyzing common adjectives was later utilized by
Raymond Cattell who likewise produced a data set that eventually showed a five factor structure.
Work by numerous other researchers over the proceeding decades produced additional support
for the five factor structure. McCrae and Costa operationalized these five factors of personality
into the measure known as the NEO-PI, one of the most well used versions of the five factor
model) (Nezami, James & Butcher, 2000).

(a) Foreign Examples

 The Rorschach inkblot test.

 The Thematic Apperception Test was
 The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 The 16PF Questionnaire (16PF)
 The Newcastle Personality Assessor (NPA)
 The HEXACO Personality Inventory – Revised (HEXACO PI-R) The International
Personality Item Pool (IPIP) The NEO PI-R, or the Revised NEO Personality Inventory,
 The Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and the Five Item Personality Inventory
(FIPI) are abbreviated rating forms of the Big Five personality traits.
 The Five Factor Personality Inventory — Children (FFPI-C)
 The Big Five Inventory (BFI), developed by John, Donahue, and Kentle.
 Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (for General; Anxiety).
 Saranson 's Test Anxiety Scale

(b) Local Examples

(i) APDI – Adolescent Personal Data Inventory by Prof. J.O. Akinboye

(ii) SPI – Student Problem Inventory by C.G.M. Bakare
(iii) SBS – Stress Behaviour Scale by Prof. J.O. Akinboye
(iv) YPI – Youth Problem Inventory by A.A. Okon
(v) Self-concept Test by A.A. Olowu
(vi) Personality Questionnaire Inventory by Akin Odebunmi
(vii) SASS – Student Academic Stress Scale by Dr. A.O. Busari

Assessment of Attitude
Attitude has always been a subject of interest to researchers as well as psychologist. Attitude can
function as a shield to someone or it can even function as a weapon to someone. Having a certain
attitude in life is crucial to people so as to help them live in harmony and towards better

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understanding of things around them. Attitudes play a major part in determining a person’s
personality. This is because attitude affects the way people perceive and act towards people,
objects or events that they encounter. Besides that, attitudes can also have an effect on one’s
social interactions. In psychology, an attitude is an expression of favour or disfavour toward a
person, place, thing, or event known as the attitude object. Prominent psychologist Gordon
Allport (1935) once described attitudes as "the most distinctive and indispensable concept in
contemporary social psychology". Eagly and Chaiken (1998) define attitude as "a psychological
tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or
disfavour". An attitude can be as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events,
activities, and ideas. It could be concrete, abstract or just about anything in one environment.
Attitude may influence the attention to attitude objects, the use of categories for encoding
information and the interpretation, judgment and recall of attitude-relevant information (Vogel,
Bohner & Wanke, 2014). These influences tend to be more powerful for strong attitudes which
are easily accessible and based an elaborate knowledge structure (Vogel, Bohner & Wanke,
2014). Attitude can be formed from a person's past and present"(Allport, 1935). Attitude has
three major components;
Cognitive component: The cognitive components of attitudes refer to the beliefs, thoughts, and
attributes that we would associate with an object. Many times a person's attitude might be based
on the negative and positive attributes they associate with an object.
Affective component: The affective components of attitudes refer to ones feelings or emotions
linked to an attitude object. Affective responses influence attitudes in a number of ways. For
example, many people are afraid/scared of lizards. So this negative affective response is likely to
cause one to have a negative attitude towards lizards.
Behavioural component: The behavioural component of attitudes refers to past behaviours or
experiences regarding an attitude object. This is the idea that people might infer their attitudes
from their previous actions.

Assessment of Attitude
Many measurements and scales are used to assess attitudes. Attitudes can be difficult to measure
because measurement is arbitrary, meaning people have to give attitudes a scale to measure it
against, and attitudes are ultimately a hypothetical construct that cannot be observed directly.
Following the explicit-implicit dichotomy, attitudes can be examined through direct and indirect
measures. Whether attitudes are explicit (i.e., deliberately formed) versus implicit (i.e.,
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subconscious) has been a topic of considerable research. Research on implicit attitudes, which
are generally unacknowledged or outside of awareness, uses sophisticated methods involving
people's response times to stimuli to show that implicit attitudes exist (perhaps in tandem with
explicit attitudes of the same object). Implicit and explicit attitudes seem to affect people's
behaviour, though in different ways. They tend not to be strongly associated with each other,
although in some cases they are.

Explicit Assessment of Attitude

Explicit measures tend to rely on self-reports or easily observed behaviours. These tend to
involve bipolar scales (e.g., good-bad, favourable-unfavourable, support-oppose, etc.) (Olson,
James, Zanna, & Mark, 1993). Explicit measures can also be used by measuring the
straightforward attribution of characteristics to nominate groups. Explicit attitudes that develop
in response to recent information, automatic evaluation were thought to reflect mental
associations through early socialisation experiences. Once formed, these associations are highly
robust and resistant to change, as well as stable across both context and time. Hence the impact
of contextual influences was assumed to be obfuscate assessment of a person's "true" and
enduring evaluative disposition as well as limit the capacity to predict subsequent behaviour
(Buhrmester, Michael, Blanton, Hart; William & Swann Jr (2011). Likert scales and other self-
reports are also commonly used.

Implicit Assessment of Attitude

Implicit measures are not consciously directed and are assumed to be automatic, which may
make implicit measures more valid and reliable than explicit measures (such as self-reports). For
example, people can be motivated such that they find it socially desirable to appear to have
certain attitudes. An example of this is that people can hold implicit prejudicial attitudes, but
express explicit attitudes that report little prejudice. Implicit measures help account for these
situations and look at attitudes that a person may not be aware of or want to show (Whitley,
2010). Implicit measures therefore usually rely on an indirect measure of attitude. For example,
the Implicit Association Test (IAT) examines the strength between the target concept and an
attribute element by considering the latency in which a person can examine two response keys
when each has two meanings. With little time to carefully examine what the participant is doing
they respond according to internal keys. This priming can show attitudes the person has about a
particular object (Fazio & Olson, 2003). People are often unwilling to provide responses
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perceived as socially undesirable and therefore tend to report what they think their attitudes
should be rather than what they know them to be. More complicated still, people may not even
be consciously aware that they hold biased attitudes. Over the past few decades, scientists have
developed new measures to identify these unconscious biases (Sekaquaptewa, Espinoza,
Thompson, Vargas & von Hippel, 2003).

Assessment of Aptitude
Having an aptitude for something means you have a talent or flair for it, i.e. you have the ability
to perform a particular kind of task at a certain level. This may be a mental (e.g. arithmetic) or a
physical task (e.g. trowing darts). In general, aptitudes are in no way related, and are therefore
fully independent from one another. This means that being highly skilled in one task does not
automatically lead to being highly skilled in another kind of task. So an aptitude is a natural
talent for the performance of a particular mental or physical task, which, to a certain extent,
cannot be gained through knowledge, understanding or training. The concept of aptitude is
closely linked to the concept of intelligence quotient (IQ), although they are in fact two
completely different things. The intelligence quotient sees intelligence as a measurable
characteristic that consists of the combined results of the various independent aptitudes.
An aptitude is therefore a component of a competency to do a certain kind of work at a
certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered "talent". Aptitude is inborn potential to do
certain kinds of work whether developed or undeveloped. Ability is developed knowledge,
understanding, learned or acquired abilities (skills) or attitude. The innate nature of aptitude is in
contrast to skills and achievement, which represent knowledge or ability that is gained through
learning. According to Gladwell (2008) and Colvin (2008) often it is difficult to set apart an
outstanding performance merely because of talent or simply because of hard training. Talented
people as rule show high results immediately in few kinds of activity, but often only in single
direction or genre. Almost 75% of the world’s top employers use aptitude tests as part of their
recruitment process for high ranking jobs

1. Fluid intelligence: the ability to think and reason abstractly, effectively solve problems and
think strategically. It’s more commonly known as ‘street smarts’ or the ability to ‘quickly
think on your feet’. An example of what employers can learn from your fluid intelligence is
your suitability for the role for which you are applying

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2. Crystallised intelligence: the ability to learn from past experiences and to apply this learning
to work-related situations. Work situations that require crystallised intelligence include
producing and analysing written reports, comprehending work instructions, using numbers as
a tool to make effective decisions, etc.

There are many different kinds of aptitude tests, since there are many different skills. In general,
these tests are supplied by special assessment companies and one of the most well-known
companies are SHL, but they are only one of many different examples. Each test provider has a
particular method and style of testing, below follows an overview of the most common aptitude
test categories:

Logical Reasoning
As the name indicates, this test gives an idea of your ability to come to a logical conclusion when
presented with a problem. These problems are often illogical or contradictory and you are not
expected to solve them based upon your knowledge but to rely solely on what is actually in front
of you. For this type, tests with syllogisms are often used.

Non verbal Reasoning

Measures your ability to discover patterns in abstract data and to extrapolate these logical
patterns in order to make the right choice. Abstract reasoning is considered the best gauge of
one’s ability to solve problems in new situations, independent of experience or acquired
knowledge. This type of intelligence is also known as fluid intelligence, and includes deductive
reasoning and inductive reasoning.

Spatial Reasoning
As a rule, this kind of test is only given if you are required to have good spatial awareness –
architects, pilots, designers, etc. – and you are required to think in three dimensions. During
these tests your ability to manipulate two dimensional objects into three dimensional objects is
assessed.
Verbal Reasoning
This type of test gives an indication of your ability to analyze and understand written
information, as it is important for employers to know how well you can communicate. Analogy
tests are often used for this.
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Numerical Reasoning
The evaluation of your elementary arithmetic skills are an integral part of nearly every
assessment or psychometric test. This provides employers with an indication of your ability to
work with numbers. As a rule, this is done through series of numbers and simple mental
arithmetic tests. There are also tests that include tables and graphs that must be interpreted, and
tests that assess your ability analyze trends, costs and your general accuracy with regard to
numbers and figures.

Source: https://www.fibonicci.com/aptitude-tests/

Aptitude Test: An aptitude Test measure the potential for success in an area, it refers to the
individuals native ability in a special area of knowledge. The individual could be successful after
being trained in that area has had the aptitude. Aptitude indicates what an individual is endowed
with. Aptitude test is a test that taps potentials. There are many types of aptitude tests. Aptitude
tests are rarely stand-alone and are usually part of so-called psychometric tests.

(a) Foreign Examples:

 Critical Thinking
 GTIOS psychometric test
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  Numerical Reasoning
 Perceptual Speed
 Personality and Preference Inventory (PAPI)
 PSL
 Rust Alpha
 Situational Judgment Test
 Spatial Visualization
 Watson Glaser critical thinking test

(b) Local Examples:

Differential Aptitude Test by A. I. Ikeotunonye Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
(ii) Aptitude for mathematics Scale by B. S. Adana,
(iii) Nigerian Aptitude Tests by TEDRO WAEC
(The TEDRO has developed well over 21 aptitude tests; some of which are being used to select
candidates into Nursing, Public Service, Science option, Clerical training and so on).

Assessment in Educational context

 Assessment in educational context refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators
use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill
acquisition, or educational needs of students. Educational assessment therefore is the process of
documenting usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skill, attitude and beliefs. It is a tool or
method of obtaining information from tests or other sources about the achievement or abilities of
individuals. Often used interchangeably with test (Vergis & Hardy, 2010). Assessment can focus
on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of
learners), the institution, or the educational system as a whole (also known as granularity).
Assessment can be divided for the sake of convenience using the following categorizations:
1. initial, formative, summative and diagnostic assessment
2. objective and subjective
3. referencing (criterion-referenced and norm-referenced)
4. informal and formal
5. internal and external
(a) Foreign Examples of Achievement test:
(i) IOWA -Test of Basic Skills in U. S. A.
(ii) GRE - Graduate Record Examination in U. S. A.
(iii) Miller's Analogy Test of Achievement in U. S. A.

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(b) Local Examples:
(i) Achievement Tests in Mathematics, Science, English, Social Studies and Yoruba by
Adedibu Ojerinde,
(ii) Test of Basic Mathematics Understanding - B. M. Osibodu
(iii) Scale of Motivation for School Achievement (SMSA) by E. O. Obe

Uses of Assessment in the Educational Sector

Assessments are used for a wide variety of purposes in schools and education systems. The uses
include;
a. Placement assessment: placement evaluation is used to place students according to prior
achievement or personal characteristics, at the most appropriate point in an instructional
sequence, in a unique instructional strategy, or with a suitable teacher (Reed, 2009). Example of
placement testing is the tests that colleges and universities use to assess college readiness and
place students into their initial classes. Placement Evaluation also referred to as pre-assessment.
Initial assessment, are conducted prior to instruction or intervention to establish a baseline from
which individual student growth can be measured. This type of an assessment is used to know
what the student's skill level is about the subject. It helps the teacher to explain the material more
efficiently. Mctighe and O’connor (2005) opined that placement assessments are not graded
b. Formative assessment: Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a
course or project. Formative assessment, also referred to as "educative assessment," is used to aid
learning. In an educational setting, formative assessment might be a teacher (or peer) or the
learner, providing feedback on a student's work and would not necessarily be used for grading
purposes. Formative assessments can take the form of diagnostic, standardized tests, quizzes,
oral question, or draft work. Formative assessments are carried out concurrently with
instructions. The result may count. The formative assessments aim to see if the students
understand the instruction before doing a summative assessment (Reed, 2009).
c. Summative assessment: Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a
course or project. In an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign
students a course grade. Summative assessments are evaluative. Summative assessments are
made to summarize what the students have learned, to determine whether they understand the
subject matter well. This type of assessment is typically graded (e.g. pass/fail, 0-100) and can

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take the form of tests, exams or projects. Summative assessments are often used to determine
whether a student has passed or failed a class. A criticism of summative assessments is that they
are reductive, and learners discover how well they have acquired knowledge too late for it to be
of use (Reed, 2009).
d. Diagnostic assessment: Diagnostic assessment provides a way for teachers to chart a
course of action, or map out a route, using existing knowledge to build upon. It also allows for
identification of gaps or misconceptions in prior learning. These assessments are used to gather
information about what students already know and are able to do. Examples of diagnostic
assessments include but are not limited to: Graphic organizers, journal Entries,KWLs and Pre-
tests.

Clinical Assessments
Clinical psychologists perform a wide range of functions to help people suffering from different
kinds of problems. Clinical assessment is a way of diagnosing and planning treatment for a
patient that involves evaluating someone in order to figure out what is wrong (Framingham,
2016). The three common types of clinical assessments include: clinical interviews, neurological
and biological testing and intelligence testing.

The Clinical Interview

The clinical interview is a core component of any psychological testing. Some people know the
clinical interview as an “intake interview”, “admission interview” or “diagnostic interview”
(although technically these are often very different things). Intake interviews are the most
common type of interview in clinical psychology. They occur when a client first comes to seek
help from a clinician. The intake interview is important in clinical psychology because it is the
first interaction that occurs between the client and the clinician. The clinician may explain to the
client what to expect during the interview, including the time duration. The purpose of the intake
interview often includes establishing and diagnosing any problems the client may have (Kramer,
Geoffrey, Douglas, Bernstein & Phares, 2009).Usually, the clinician diagnoses the patient using
criteria from the first two DSM axes. During the intake interview, the clinician may determine a
treatment plan. In some cases, particular clinician may feel that he or she lacks the expertise to
best help the client. It is during the intake interview that the clinician should refer the client to
another source (Kramer, Geoffrey, Douglas, Bernstein & Phares, 2009).

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 During the intake interview, both parties form opinions about one another that can be
either positive or negative. The client begins to perceive the characteristics of the therapist
during this intake interview and the clinical relationship between the two starts to form here
(Hilsenroth & Cromer, 2007). A client’s perception of a clinician during an intake interview can
either hinder or encourage them to get further treatment. The more clients perceive positive
qualities in their therapists, the more likely they are to attend sessions in the future. This
decision whether or not to continue treatment is usually is made after the intake interview takes
place. Studies have found that almost all patients make a decision about whether to return or not
after the intake interview (Alcázar Olán, Deffenbacher, Guzmán, Sharma & de la Chaussée
Acuña, 2010). Approximately fifty percent of psychotherapy patients drop out of treatment and
most of these patients do so after they have an intake interview (Wierzbicki & Pekarik, 1993).
Therefore, it is important that during intake interviews that the clinician expresses to his or her
clients that they have a correct understanding of the client and his or her needs and emotions.
This helps the client feel secure, and thus makes it more likely that the client will continue to
seek treatment (Kramer, Geoffrey, Douglas, Bernstein & Phares, 2009). Some intake interviews
include a mental status examination. It is a clinical interview that looks at more than just the
answers to questions. It can look at a patient's behaviours, appearance, attitude and movements,
as well as their answers to questions. All of these things will give the clinician a good view of
what their mental health is like. Of course, a mental status exam can be used on any patient,
including those who seem lucid.

Neuropsychological Assessments
Neuropsychological assessment is another type of clinical assessments. It was traditionally
carried out to assess the extent of impairment to a particular skill and to attempt to determine the
area of the brain which may have been damaged following brain injury or neurological illness.
With the advent of neuroimaging techniques, location of space-occupying lesions can now be
more accurately determined through this method, so the focus has now moved on to the
assessment of cognition and behaviour, including examining the effects of any brain injury or
neuropathological process that a person may have experienced. A core part of
neuropsychological assessment is the administration of neuropsychological tests for the formal
assessment of cognitive function, though neuropsychological testing is more than the
administration and scoring of tests and screening tools. It is essential that neuropsychological
assessment also include an evaluation of the person's mental status. This is especially true in
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assessment of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia (Kramer, Geoffrey, Douglas,
Bernstein & Phares, 2009). Aspects of cognitive functioning that are assessed typically include
orientation, new-learning/memory, intelligence, language, visuoperception, and executive
function. However, clinical neuropsychological assessment is more than this and also focuses on
a person's psychological, personal, interpersonal and wider contextual circumstances.
Assessment may be carried out for a variety of reasons, such as:
 Clinical evaluation, to understand the pattern of cognitive strengths as well as any
difficulties a person may have, and to aid decision making for use in a medical or
rehabilitation environment.
 Scientific investigation, to examine an hypothesis about the structure and function of
cognition to be tested, or to provide information that allows experimental testing to be
seen in context of a wider cognitive profile.
 Medico-legal assessment, to be used in a court of law as evidence in a legal claim or
criminal investigation.

Miller outlined three broad goals of neuropsychological assessment. First, diagnosis is done to
determine the nature of the underlying problem. Second, to understand the nature of any brain
injury or resulting cognitive problem (neurocognitive deficit) and its impact on the individual, as
means of devising a rehabilitation programme or offering advice as to an individual's ability to
carry out a certain tasks (for example, fitness to drive). Third, assessments may be undertaken to
measure change in functioning over time, such as to determine the consequences of a surgical
procedure or the impact of a rehabilitation programme over time (Andrew, 2011).

Intellectual Assessment
Various types of standardized psychological tests are used during the assessment of intellectual
disabilities (ID, formerly mental retardation). These tests may assess intelligence (IQ), learning
abilities, and behavioural skills. A standardized test is uniformly designed and consistently
administered. This permits comparisons of individual scores against average scores for the same
group. This comparison provides vital information about a person's skills and abilities relative to
their peers. Comparisons between group and individual scores are normally matched by age,
culture, education, and other factors known to affect IQ scores.

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Tests of intellectual functioning (IQ)
Tests of intellectual functioning are designed to measure different mental abilities. These tests
are commonly called IQ tests. IQ tests measure the following mental abilities:
 Reasoning;
 Problem solving;
 Abstract thinking;
 Judgment;
 Academic learning;
 Experiential learning
IQ tests have two parts. One part measures verbal abilities. The other part measures spatial
abilities. Spatial is sometimes called performance skills. It refers to movement and the
manipulation of three-dimensional space. Verbal and spatial scores vary widely. One person
might have low scores across the board. Another person might do well verbal IQ but poorly
on spatial IQ. Therefore, even though two people have the same total IQ scores, their abilities
may be very different.
Foreign example:
i. Cartel's Intelligence test for babies
ii. Griffin's Intelligence test for babies
iii. WPPSI - Wechsler Pre-school and Primary Scale of Intelligence for children 3-5
years
iv WISC -Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
. WAIS -Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
v. Stanford - Binet test of Intelligence (Binet is the first psychologist to devise an
intelligence scale in 1905 to separate children who cannot benefit from classroom
instruction. This test was later modified by an American Psychologist known as
Stanford hence the name Stanford -Binet test of Intelligence.)
vii. Progressive Matrices

(b) Local Examples: In an attempt to solve the problem of scarcity of psychological tests
and heavy dependence on foreign ones which may not adequately tap what they are purported

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to tap in our clients. Nigerian psychologists have come up with a number of locally constructed
psychological tests.
Those that measure mental ability include:
(i) The visual memory test by C. M. G. Bakare
(ii) Perception of Details Test by C. M. G. Bakare
(iii) The African picture arrangement kits by C. M. G. Bakare
(iv) Ibadan Creativity Assessment Scale (ICAS) by J. O. Akinboye
(v) Personal Creativity Motivational Inventory (PCMI) by J. O. Akinboye
(vi) Intelligence for Nigerian Children. A Child Delinquency Tendency Inventory by
B. S. Adana.
(vii) Self-scoring Intelligence Test by Akin Odebunmi
(ix) Adapted ways of using the Wechsler test of Intelligence for Adults

Occupational Assessments
Assessment plays a vital part in the recruitment process as well as providing a valuable
performance development tool. They are often used as a management tool for team building,
training needs analysis, and skills assessment. Occupational assessments provide us with the
opportunity to learn more about a person’s ability, working style and behavioural patterns which
would not be able to be identified through the interview process. Choosing the right person for
the job has long been a problem that many employers have struggled to address. Poor selection
may have disastrous consequences for both the employee and the organisation. From the
organisation's perspective, the cost of hiring and training an inappropriate candidate can be very
high in terms of lost productivity and revenue, reduced efficiency, increased absenteeism,
reduced morale, the cost of the selection process itself and the cost of retraining new personnel.
From the employee's perspective, being selected for the "wrong" job may have consequences
ranging from loss of motivation, reduced job satisfaction, increased work stress, failure to
progress in their career, to more clinical manifestations such as depression and anxiety.
Employers have attempted to resolve the selection problem by using a variety of methods to aid
selection accuracy.

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Test types used
Different types of assessments may be used for employment testing, including personality tests,
intelligence tests, work samples, and assessment centers. Some correlate better with job
performance than with others; employers often use more than one to maximize predictive power.

Performance Assessment tests

Performance-based assessment testing is a process to find out if applicants can do the job for
which they are applying. It is done through tests, which are directly administered and judged by
Hiring Managers who will be supervising the potential hire. Performance assessments can be
used as a pre-screening tool to test applied knowledge, skills-job match and commitment of the
applicant towards the job position (Schmidt & Hunter, 2004). The tests are peer-to-peer and
reflect real business tasks that candidates have to perform, should they be selected for the role.
The tests are open ended, time bound, business related questions which applicants need to submit
their responses for in order to prove their abilities (Ployhart, 2006). The most important question
that performance testing, seeks to answer is: How would you solve this problem? Web tools like,
HireVue, GapJumpers and CodeEval allow candidate responses to be judged directly by Hiring
Managers of the respective departments to select the ones most suited for the role, thus making
the process efficient for the company (Wetzel & McDaniel, 2009).

Personality tests
Personality tests may potentially be useful in personnel selection. Of the well-known Big Five
personality traits, only conscientiousness correlates substantially with traditional measures of job
performance, and that correlation is strong enough to be predictive (Lievens, Peeters &
Schollaert, 2008). However, other factors of personality can correlate substantially with non-
traditional aspects of job performance, such as leadership and effectiveness in a team
environment. Types of personality test have been discussed previously.

Cognitive Ability tests

Tests of cognitive ability can assess general intelligence and correlate very highly with overall
job performance (Ployhart, 2006). Individuals with higher levels of cognitive ability tend to

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perform better on their jobs. This is especially true for jobs that are particularly intellectually
demanding.

Job-knowledge tests
Employers administer job-knowledge tests when applicants must already possess a body of
knowledge before being hired (Job-knowledge tests are particularly useful when applicants must
have specialized or technical knowledge that can only be acquired through extensive experience
or training. Job-knowledge tests are commonly used in fields such as computer programming,
law, and financial management. Licensing exams and certification programs are also types of
job-knowledge tests. Passing such exams indicates competence in the exam's subject area. Tests
must be representative of the tested field, otherwise litigation can be brought against the test-
giver.

Situational judgment Tests

Situational judgment tests are commonly used as employee-selection and employee-screening
tools and have been developed to predict employment success. These tests present realistic
hypothetical scenarios in a multiple-choice format. Applicants are asked to state what they would
do in a difficult job-related situation. Situational judgment tests measure the suitability of job
applicants by assessing attributes such as problem solving, service orientation, and striving for
achievement (Lievens, Peeters & Schollaert, 2008).

Ability Assessment
The underlying goal of general ability tests is to assess potential candidates in terms of their
overall intellectual potential and build a profile of their individual strengths and weaknesses. 
There is a body of research to suggest that cognitive ability testing is a strong predictor of job
performance and that the validity of this predictor rises as the complexity of the job rises. The
main types of ability test used in selection are:
 Tests of General or Global Ability (also called "g", intelligence, IQ)
 Tests of Specific Cognitive abilities (Abstract Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, Numerical
Reasoning)
 Tests of Psychomotor abilities and specific aptitudes (vision, hearing, motor dexterity,
artistic ability, mechanical ability, management potential, leadership potential etc.)

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Tests of General / Global Ability attempt to measure a person's ability to problem solve,
analyses, understand and adapt to new situations or challenges. They usually produce an IQ score
or measure of 'g'. In the workplace setting tests of this type are often "short versions" with the
emphasis on gaining a better understanding of a person's general strengths and weaknesses in
relation to other graduates, rather than deriving an IQ type score.

Tests of Specific Cognitive & Psychomotor Abilities attempt to measure the depth and nature
of particular strengths and weaknesses in subject or job related areas. Typically these involve
high level cognitive processing, complex problem solving, analytical reasoning, verbal
reasoning, abstract reasoning and information checking. In some instances tests may extend to
visual acuity, motor dexterity, mechanical reasoning and other psychomotor domains. The choice
of test is largely dependent upon the context and nature of the role. For graduate positions, many
companies tend to use a broad range of tests to get a feel for a person's abilities in different areas,
so as to help them assess where an applicant might best be suited. These are likely to include
tests of vocabulary, numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, abstract problem solving or critical
reasoning, in conjunction with personality and values questionnaires. It may also include tests of
management and leadership potential, or mechanical or clerical aptitudes. Visual, motor, and
tests of artistic ability are not usually included in standard multiple aptitude batteries due to their
specificity and cost.

Characteristics of Ability Tests

 Usually timed (approximately 15 - 40 minutes)

 Consist of short questions where there is only one right answer but a lot of wrong ones.
 Are typically multiple choice, or short answer format where you are asked to provide a
number or a single word response
 Are generally designed to discriminate between highly talented candidates therefore few
candidates finish them.
 The questions usually become progressively more difficult.
 Each question is commonly worth the same value therefore speed of cognitive processing
and number of correct answers are important
 Most ability tests do not penalise you for incorrect answers, you will need to check this
with the test supervisor before you begin.
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  They are usually paper and pencil tests although some are available in electronic format.

Conclusion
In conclusion, psychological assessment is necessary to provide valuable insights into the
individual’s behaviour, skills, thoughts and personality. Psychological assessment is never
focused on a single test score or number. Every person has a range of competencies that can be
evaluated through a number of methods. A psychologist is there to evaluate the competencies as
well as the limitations of the person, and report on them in an objective but helpful manner. A
psychological assessment report will not only note weaknesses found in testing, but also the
individual’s strengths.

Recommendations

For psychological assessment to be considered effective, it must have the following features;

 Assessment should bring about benefits for the individuals being assessed. Gathering
accurate information from people is difficult and potentially stressful. Assessments must
have a clear benefit—either in direct services to the client or in improved quality of the
programme
 Assessment should be tailored to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair
for that purpose. Assessments designed for one purpose are not necessarily valid if used
for other purposes. In the past, many of the abuses of testing have occurred because of
misuse.
 Assessment should be age appropriate in both content and the method of data collection.
Assessments should address the full range of development including physical well-being
and motor development; social and emotional development; approaches toward learning;
language development; and cognition and general knowledge.
 Assessment should be linguistically appropriate. Each respondent’s first- and second-
language development should be taken into account when determining appropriate
assessment methods and in interpreting the meaning of assessment results

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