Psychology for Dummies (72 page)

Clinical psychologists typically use clinical testing as a way to clarify diagnoses and assess the extent and nature of a person or family’s disturbance and dysfunction. Specific tests have been designed to assess the extent to which a patient may or may not be experiencing the symptoms of a particular disorder. I call these
diagnostic tests.
A popular example is the
Beck Depression Inventory,
which is designed to assess a patient’s level of depression.

Behavioral and adaptive functioning
tests are two types of clinical tests that are designed to assess how well a person is doing in their everyday lives and whether he or she exhibits specific problem behaviors. A common instrument used with children is the
Child Behavior Checklist,
which is designed to assess the extent of a child’s behavior problems. Another commonly used clinical test is the
Conner’s Parent Rating Scale,
which is designed to assess the presence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.

In addition to disorder specific inventories and tests, a wide variety of tests designed for other purposes lend themselves to the diagnostic process. Intelligence tests are designed to measure intelligence, but they can also show signs of cognitive dysfunction and learning disabilities. Personality tests are designed to measure personality, but they can also provide us with good information about the types of psychological problems an individual is having.

Educational and achievement tests are designed to measure an individual’s current level of academic competence. Glen Aylward identifies three major purposes of this type of testing:

A typical educational/achievement test assesses the most common areas of school activity: reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing skills. Some tests include other areas such as science and social studies. A popular achievement test in wide use today is the
Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery, Revised.
The test consists of nine subtests, measuring the standard areas listed above but in more detail (mathematics is broken down into calculation and applied problems, for example).

Educational/achievement testing is widely used in the school systems. When a child or even a college student is having a hard time in school, it’s not unusual for her to take an achievement test for a closer look at her basic skill level. Sometimes, students have a difficult time because they have a learning disability. Part of identifying a learning disability includes assessing a student’s achievement level. Other times, a student struggles because of non-academic related difficulties such as emotional problems, substance abuse, or family problems. An achievement test sometimes helps to tease out these non-academic difficulties.

Personality tests measure a great deal of things, not just personality. Numerous tests are designed to measure emotion, motivation, and interpersonal skills, as well as specific aspects of personality, according to the given theory a test is based on. Most personality tests are known as
self-reports.
With self-reports, the person answering questions about him or herself, typically in a pencil-and-paper format, provides the information.

Personality tests are usually developed with a particular theory of personality in mind. There are tests that measure id, ego, and superego issues, for example.

Perhaps the most widely used personality test is the
MMPI-2, The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory,
2nd Edition.
Almost all psychologists are trained to use the MMPI-2, considered to be a very reliable and valid instrument. The MMPI-2 provides a psychologist with rich information about the presence of psychopathology and the level of its severity, if present. It also provides information about the emotional, behavioral, and social functioning of the test taker. A lot of psychologists use the MMPI-2 as a way to check the accuracy of their observations and diagnoses.

The test consists of 567 individual items and produces a score on 9 clinical categories or scales. If a score is over a specific cutoff, it usually gets the attention of the psychologist administering the test. Psychologists consider such scores to be of clinical significance. The MMPI-2 provides excellent information across a wide variety of areas: depression, physical complaints, anger, social contact, anxiety, and energy level to name just a few.

Projective personality tests
are a unique breed of test. When most people think of psychological testing, these kinds of tests come readily to mind. The stereotype involves sitting across from a psychologist, looking at a card with smeared ink or a picture of somebody doing something on it. “What do you see here?” are the words uttered by the shrink.

These tests are unique because they’re based on something called the
projective hypothesis,
which states that when presented with an ambiguous stimuli, people will project, and thus reveal, parts of themselves and their psychological functioning that they may not reveal if asked more directly. It’s not like these tests are trying to trick people. The idea is that a lot of us can’t really put words to or describe what is going on because of our psychological defense mechanisms. Some people are not conscious of their feelings. Projective tests are designed to get past the defenses and penetrate the deep recesses of the psyche. Sounds scary doesn’t it?

Perhaps the most popular projective personality test and maybe even the most popular psychological test of all time is the
Rorschach Inkblot Test (RIT).
The RIT consists of ten cards, each with its own standard inkblot figure. None of these inkblots are a picture or representation of anything. They were created by simply pouring ink onto a sheet of paper and folding it in half. The only meaning and structure the cards have are provided by the projections of the test taker herself.

Intelligence tests are probably given more often than any other kind of test. These tests measure a wide variety of intellectual and cognitive abilities and often provide a general measure of intelligence, which is sometimes called an
IQ
—
intelligence quotient.

Intelligence tests are used in a wide variety of settings and applications. They can be used for diagnostic purposes, specifically for learning about disabilities and cognitive disorders. They’re also widely used in academic and school settings. Intelligence tests have been around since the beginning of psychology as a formal science.

The most commonly used tests of intelligence are the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd Edition, (WAIS-III)
for adults and the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children,
3rd Edition,
(WISC-III)
for children. That Wechsler sure is a busy guy! Each of these tests consists of several subtests designed to measure specific aspects of intelligence. Both tests provide individual scores for each subtest and an overall score representing overall intelligence. Some examples of what the subtests measure are