ASSESSMENT

In psychology, assessment tools are used to make a decision about the client, or to classify them in some way. In counseling, assessment is used to promote client well being (per ACA ethics guidelines). This may or may not be in direct conflict with using tests for classification/decision making purposes. Assessment is multi-modal. We often think of testing as a primary means of assessment but it can also include structured or unstructured interviews, observations, and information from other sources. Most psychological tests give us ordinal scores, that is, they are based on percentile rankings. These are scores that are ranked, but not in an equal-units fashion. Therefore, we cannot presume to truly measure the distances between scores. For example, scores in the 40% and 45% percentile are not necessarily equidistant from scores in the 90% and 95% percentile. Instrument validity and reliability is only truly valid for the sample the instrument was normed on. The true reliability and validity may be different for the individuals you complete the test on. Many psychological tests are used in ways beyond their initial intent. For example, police officer candidates are often given the MMPI-2, which was designed to ID clinical pathology, not job readiness. This is called stretching the validity of the test, again leaving to question whether or not the instrument is truly valid and reliable for the purpose it is being used for. Tests used for psychological purposes can include IQ tests, personality tests, neurological tests, career assessments, performance tests, etc. Psychological testing can give us information sometimes more quickly and in more depth than through interview alone. It is designed to do so in a structured way, with more objective results. Some tests, however, lend themselves more to subjective impressions, rather than objective results, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, the Enneagram, or projective tests. Counselors may not use projective tests for diagnostic purposes, but can use them for general, subjective impressions. While some assessment tools are used to generate a diagnosis, the ACA Code of Ethics notes that counselors an refrain from giving a diagnosis to a client if doing so could cause them harm. Personality tests that do not presume pathology may be favored with counseling clients unless pathology is suspected. Using the NEO instead of the MMPI-2 is a good example. Testing for legal purposes should not be done with past or present clients, as it takes away the neutrality of the testing experience, and clinical impressions could be clouded by the past or current counseling relationship.

Testing validity refers to whether or not the test is correct for our needs. Does it measure the construct we wish to measure. Testing reliability refers to whether or not the test measures the construct consistently. In other words, validity refers to whether or not a hammer is the right tool to fix a chair and reliability refers to whether or not it is a good hammer.