Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
- Apply APA standards for psychological assessment to specific situations
- Describe the philosophical and scientific basis for psychological assessment
- Understand and apply concepts of reliability and validity to psychological assessment
- Apply principles of population statistics (normal distributions, Bayes’ Theorem) to individual test scores
- Describe theories of intelligence
- Describe major tests of intelligence and educational achievement and their applications
Syllabus (NEW!!! - you may need to request permission again to view it)
September 10, 2012 |
Topics: Introduction and overview, diversity, ethics, and professional standards
Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo: Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 21 Ethics and the Future of Testing
APA Ethics Code (pdf)
Required Readings:
Gallo, F. J., & Halgin, R. P.
(2011). A guide for establishing a practice in police reemployment
postoffer psychological evaluations. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42, 269-275. (pdf)
Seghal, R., Saules, K., Young, A.,
Grey, M. J., Gillem, A. R., Nabors, N. A., Byrd, M. R., & Jefferson,
S. (2011). Practicing what we know: Multicultural counseling competence
among clinical psychology trainees and experienced
multicultural psychologists. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 1-10. (pdf)
Danztker, M. L. (2011). Psychological
preemployment screening for police candidates: Seeking consistency if
not standardization. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42, 276-283. (pdf)
Big Five Inventory Information
John,
O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy:
History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin
& O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research
(2nd ed., pp. 102-138). New York: Guilford. (pdf)
Lecture Notes
|
September 24, 2012 |
Homework assignment #1 discussed in class
Topics: Review of homework, statistics refresher
Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo: Chapter 3 Correlation and Regression
Homework assignment #2 (correlation and regression)
Lecture Notes (Word, pdf)
Take-home practice exam for statistics (pdf) (key)
BFI Correlation and Regression Example Syntax |
October 1, 2012 |
Homework assignment #1 due
Topics: Review of homework, regression, Bayes theorem, reliability
Lecture Notes Revised Lecture Notes (posted 10/9/12 at 11:22 P.M.)
Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo: Chapter 4 Reliability
Required Readings:
Wood, B. T., Worthington, E. K., Everett, L., Jr., Exine, J. J.,
Yali, A. M., Aten, J. D., & McMinn, M. R. (2010). Development,
refinement, and psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward God
Scale (ATGS-9). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2, 148-167. (pdf) |
October 8, 2012 |
Homework #2 due (key) Lecture Notes (posted 10/9/12 at 11:25 P.M.)
Topics: Reliability, Validity, review for midterm (everything through the end of class tonight is fair game for the midterm)
Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo: Chapter 5 Validity
Required Readings:
Merz, E. L., Malcarne, V. L., Roesch, S. C., Riley, N., & Sadler,
G. R. (2011). A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis for the Patient
Health Questionnaire-9 among English and Spanish-speaking Latinas. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 309-316. (pdf)
Shen, F. C., Wang, Y. W., & Swanson, J. L. (2011). Development
and initial validation of the Internalization of Asian American
Stereoptypes Scale. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 283-294. (pdf)
Balsam, K. F., Molina, Y., Beadnell, B., Simoni, J., & Walters,
K. (2011). Measuring multiple minority stress. The LGBT People of Color
Microaggressions Scale. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 163-174. (pdf)
Stucky, B. D., Gottfredson, N. C., Panter, A. C., Daye, C. E.,
Allen, W. R., & Wrightman, L. F. (2011). An item factor analysis and
item response theory-based revision of the Everyday Discrimination
Scale. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 17, 175-185. (pdf) |
October 15, 2012 |
Topics: Midterm Exam |
October 22, 2012 |
Topics: Test Administration, Test Development Notes from a course on Test Construction taught by Julian B. Rotter (abbreviated as JBR in this document) at the University of Connecticut. These notes were transcribed by Salvatore J. Catanzaro,
Julian Rotter's last doctoral student, when he took the course and
given to me when I needed to do some test construction while completing
my master's degree with Catanzaro. A recent piece on Rotter may be
found here. Incidentally, October 22nd is Rotter's birthday, and in 2012 he is 96.
Radiolab on measuring pain from insect bites link Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo, Chapter 7 Test Administration, Chapter 8 Interviewing Techniques Kaplan & Saccuzzo, Chapter 6 Writing and Evaluating Test Items |
October 29, 2012 |
Topics: Test Development, Test Bias, Legal Issues in Psychological Testing
Notes A recent example of taxometric information is presented in the Neuroskeptic blog, and refers to this interesting, recent paper by Carothers and Ries. More information on taxometrics may be found at Paul Meehl's website. This American Life
on how Oklahoma obtained free, preschool education for the majority of
the state. (there are several stories here [all interesting -- to SOME people], but the preschool piece (about the Perry preschool project) which will be interesting to YOU starts at 35:04; you can also read about James Heckman, the Nobel laureate who has done economic analysis of preschool). Talk of the Nation on Stereotype Threat, which includes an Interview with Claude Steele
Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo, Chapter 19 Test Bias, Chapter 20 Testing and the Law |
November 5, 2012 |
Topics: Intelligence: Conceptualization and Measurement
Required Text: Kaplan & Saccuzzo, Chapter 9 Theories of Intelligence and the Binet Scales
Required Readings:
Kanazawa, S. (2010). Evolutionary psychology and intelligence research. American Psychologist, 65, 279-289. (pdf)
Hagen, L. D., Drogin, E. Y., & Guilmette, T. J. (2010). Science rather than advocacy when reporting IQ scores. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41, 420-423. (pdf)
Kunzel, N. R., & Sackett, P. R. (2007). Selective citation mars conclusion about test validity and predictive bias. American Psychologist, 62, 145-146. (pdf)
Vasquez, M. J. T., & Jones, J. M. (2007). Diversity is a compelling interest, and affirmative action is an important strategy for achieving it. American Psychologist, 62, 146-147. (pdf)
Report due, Final Exam Posted Here
Other relevant readings Johnson,
W., Carothers, A., & Deary, I. J. (2009). A role for the X
chromosome in sex differences in variability in general intelligence? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(6), 598-611. (pdf) Nesse, R. J. (2005). Evolutionary psychology and mental health. (pp. 903-927). In D. Buss. The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. (pdf) Clark,
R. D., III & Hatfield, E. (1989), Gender differences in receptivity
to sexual offers, Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 2, 39-55. (pdf) Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual Strategies Theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204-232. (pdf) |
November 12, 2012 (Final Exam Period -- Make Up Class for September 3) |
Topics: Intellectual and Educational Achievement Tests
Required Text:Kaplan & Saccuzzo, Chapter 10: The Wechsler
Intelligence Scales, Chapter 11 Other Individual Tests of Ability in
Education and Special Education, Chapter 12 Standardized Tests in
Education, Civil Service, and the Military
Required Readings:
Sackett, P. R., Borneman, M. J., & Connelly, B. S. (2008). High
stakes testing in higher education and employment. American Psychologist, 63, 215-227. (pdf)
Take-Home Final Exams Due (HARD COPY, NOT ELECTRONIC) |
|
|