PSYC314 Extended Unit Outline 2020 PDF

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FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES School of BEHAVIOURAL AND HEALTH SCIENCE Melbourne Campus (St Patricks) SEMESTER 2, 2020 PSYC314: PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT UNIT OUTLINE

Credit points: 10 Prerequisites/incompatibles: 

PSYC104 Research Design and Statistics 1



PSYC213 Individual Differences

Lecturer in Charge: Strathfield Name: Associate Professor Rachel Dryer Office location: Edward Clancy Building (640.G.05) Email: [email protected] Telephone: 02 9701 4773 Contact me: Please contact me via e-mail. Consulation is by appointment.

Melbourne Name: Dr Graeme Hyman Office location: The Daniel Mannix Building (403, Level 5) Email: [email protected] Telephone: N/A Contact me: Please contact me via e-mail. Emails to Staff: When you email a member of staff please make sure that you use your ACU email address and include your full name, your ID number, and the unit code you are enquiring about. While staff will endeavour to respond to your emails as soon as possible, immediate responses are not always possible. Some staff are not able to check emails every day and staff are not required to

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check emails outside of normal office hours, on weekends, or public holidays. Please be patient when waiting for a response.

Unit rationale, description and aim: The use of testing and assessment has a long history in psychology, as it allows the accurate measurement of psychological (and non-psychological) constructs that can be compared between individuals, or can compare an individual’s performance from one time point to another. Psychological assessment has been used in education placements (the identification of special needs or of gifted learners), workplace selection and promotion, career testing, and mental health to name but a few. It is the science of psychometric test development, based in classical testing theories, that allows these psychological fields to prosper and evolve in stable and predictable ways. Thus, the overarching aim of this unit is to train students in methods for the development and refinement of new psychological tests and assessments, and to understand the use and appropriate applications of those already in use in the field.

Mode: This unit is offered online (via Zoom), and will comprise of lectures, online tutorial exercises/activities, and discussion. Attendance pattern: 3 contact hours per week comprised of a 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial. Duration: The duration of the unit is a standard 12 week-semester. You should anticipate undertaking 150 hours of study for this unit, including class attendance, readings and assignment preparation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES On successful completion of this unit, you should be able to: 

LO1 understand the major issues pertaining to test construction, administration, analysis and interpretation (GA1, GA3, GA5);



LO2 describe the ethical guidelines pertaining to assessment in the administration, interpretation and reporting of psychological assessment tools/techniques, including the need for factors such as culture to be taken into consideration (GA1, GA5, GA9);



LO3 explain the major psychological assessment techniques, including appropriate use/s, and advantages and disadvantages of those assessment techniques (GA4, GA5, GA8);



LO4 relate the properties and applications of a number of commonly used psychological tests to contemporary uses in various fields of psychology and related disciplines (GA5);



LO5 apply this knowledge to psychological research using principles of classical testing theory and psychometric assessment (GA3,GA4,GA6, GA8, GA9).

GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES Each unit in your course contributes in some way to the development of the ACU Graduate Attributes which you should demonstrate by the time you complete your course. All Australian universities have their expected graduate attributes – ACU’s Graduate Attributes have a greater emphasis on ethical behaviour and community responsibility than those of many other universities. All of your units will enable you to develop some attributes. On successful completion of this unit, you should have developed your ability to: 

GA1

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demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity Version:



GA3

apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making



GA4

think critically and reflectively



GA5

demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession



GA6

solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account



GA8

locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information



GA9

demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media

CONTENT Topics will include: 

Introduction to psychological assessment



Test construction



Applications of psychological testing



Ethics and culture in assessment

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND STUDENT FEEDBACK This unit has been evaluated through the ‘Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching’ (SELT) online surveys. Based on the SELTs of 2017, the assessment tasks have been adjusted – speficially, the length and format of the first assessment task has been adjusted in alignment with the workload that should be anticipated from a task such as this one. In addition, some distributions of content (both depth of content and the order in which it is presented) have been reassessed. SELT surveys are usually conducted at the end of the teaching period. Your practical and constructive feedback is valuable to improve the quality of the unit. Please ensure you complete the SELT survey for the unit. You can also provide feedback at other times to the unit lecturers, course coordinators and/or through student representatives.

LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGY AND RATIONALE The unit is delivered in online mode with 3 contact hours per week: each week there will be a 2 hour Zoom lecture and a 1 hour Zoom tutorial. This mode of delivery is designed to enhance discussion and engagement in the content covered in the unit. The lectures are to aid students with the acquisition and understanding of knowledge while the tutorials are designed to enhance application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of that knowledge. To assist you in your self-directed learning, other learning resources are utilised including: online quizzes and activities; online forums; and lecture recordings.

LECTURE CAPTURE Lectures will be recorded and made available to students if facilities are available. Students will be notified before each lecture recording.

SCHEDULE For the most up-to-date information, please check your LEO unit and also note advice from your lecturing and tutoring staff for changes to this schedule. Page 3 of 13

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Week

Starting

Lectures (via Zoom)

Required reading

Tutorial Exercise (via Zoom)

1

27th July 2020

Introduction:  Psychological testingincontext  Ethicsintesting

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapters1& 21.



2

3rd August 2020

PsychometricTheory  ClassicalTest Theory.  Z‐scores& correlations  Reliability

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapters3& 4

Statisticsrefresher:  Means,Standard deviations,z‐ scores



3

10th August 2020

PsychometricTheory:  Validity  TestBiasversus TestFairness

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapters5& 19 

LabReportData collectiontutorial  ItemAnalysisActivity 1



4

17th August 2020

TestConstruction& ItemAnalyses  Distractor effectiveness  Correctionfor guessing

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapter6 

ItemanalysisActivity 2  



5

24th August 2020

Kaplan& ItemAnalyses: Saccuzzo  Itemdifficulty Chapters6  Itemvariance  Itemdiscrimination indices

Norms&Percentile ranks

TakeHomeExam available28th Augustfrom8am

6

31st August 2020

TestAdministration  Basicinferential statistics  Norms  Criterion referencedtests

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapters2,3 &7

LabReportData collectiontutorial2 (Test‐retest)  Q&ATakehomeexam

Assessment1: Takehome exam. DueFriday4th Septemberat 11pm

7

7th Sept 2020

ClinicalApplications:  Ethical&Cultural Considerations  Interviewing techniques. 

Kaplan& Ethical&Cultural Saccuzzo considerations  Chapters8& 21plus Leganto Readings (APSCodes& Guidelines)

8

14th Sept 2020

Intelligence:  Theoriesof intelligence.

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapters9 and10.

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Assessment due

Operationalisation  ofconstruct& itemwriting

Interviewing techniquesworkshop 

Version:





Week

Starting

Lectures (via Zoom) 

9

21st Sept 2020

Required reading

Tutorial Exercise (via Zoom)

Assessment due

Labreporttutorial



Raven’sStandard ProgrsssiveMatrices 

Assessment2: LabReportdue 9thOct2020by 11pm



Measuring Intelligence.

Ability/Achievement: Kaplan&  IndividualvsGroup Saccuzzo  Chapters11 tests and12. UA Vacation Week

10

5th Oct 2020

Personality:  Theoriesof Personality  Measuring personality

11

12 Oct 2020

Psychologicaltesting& Kaplan& health: Saccuzzo  Healthpsychology  Chapter17.  Neuropsychological assessments.

Holland’sTheoryof PersonalityTypes& WorkEnvironments



12

19 Oct 2020

Industrial& OrganisationalTesting  BaseRates&Hit Rates

ExamRevision





26th Oct 2020

Studyweek



2nd Nov 2020

 ExaminationPeriod

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapters13 &14

Kaplan& Saccuzzo  Chapter18

9th Nov 2020

ASSESSMENT STRATEGY AND RATIONALE In order to successfully complete this unit, you will need to complete and submit all of the assessment tasks listed in the table below. In addition to this, you must obtain an aggregate mark of at least 50% to pass the unit. In order to best enable students to demonstrate unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. A range of assessment strategies are used including: a take-home exam which is designed to scaffold your understanding and application of the content of the unit; an APA style Lab report to demonstrate your ability to discuss and consolidate research literature to develop research hypotheses and argument, provide a description of the methodology of a study, and to interpret and discuss research findings; and an exam which provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding, consolidation and application of the content covered in the unit.

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The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for you to demonstrate your achievement of each learning outcome.

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION, MARKING AND RETURN The submission, marking, and return of assessment 1 and 2 will be electronic for this unit.

Assessment tasks

Due date

Learning Graduate Weighting outcome(s) attribute(s) (%) assessed assessed

Take Home Exam (1000 words). The take-home exam contains a variety of different types of questions which require short answers. It has been designed to scaffold your understanding and application of the content of the unit.

4th September, 11pm.

25%

LO1, LO5

GA1, GA3, GA5, GA9

Lab report (1500 words) You are to submit an APA style laboratory report to demonstrate your ability to discuss and consolidate research literature to develop a new psychometric assessment, to provide a description of the methodology of a study, and to interpret and discuss research findings. You are also to demonstrate your skill in locating and evaluating scholarly research and applying the APA referencing system to written work.

9th October, 11pm.

35%

LO3, LO4, LO5

GA1, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8, GA9.

Final exam (1.5 hours) The exam will contain multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions of which you will be required to answer 3. The exam provides you with an opportunity to

During Examination period

40%

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5.

GA1, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA8, GA9.

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Assessment tasks

Due date

Graduate Learning Weighting outcome(s) attribute(s) (%) assessed assessed

demonstrate your understanding, consolidation and application of the content covered in the unit.

ASSIGNMENT 1 Take Home Exam (1000 words) You will be provided with a raw data set and you will be required to work with this data set to complete the questions on this take home exam. This assessment will require you to provide psychometric evidence for the items developed for the scale during this unit (i.e., evidence for item difficulty, discrimination, etc.). Due date:

04/09/2020, 11pm

Weighting:

25%

Length and/or format:

1000 words

Purpose:

To demonstrate an understanding of the issues pertaining to test construction, administration, analysis, and interpretation, including the calculation of psychometric evidence at the itemlevel.

Learning outcomes assessed:

LO1, LO5

How to submit:

Students will submit their assessment through the link provided in LEO.

Return of assignment:

Assessment will be returned electronically three weeks after it is submitted.

Assessment criteria:

A marking breakdown will be provided with the take-home exam. In order to pass the unit, students must complete this assessment.

ASSIGNMENT 2 Lab report (1500 words) This assessment will provide psychometric evidence for the scale developed during this unit (i.e., evidence for validity and reliability. Due date:

09/10/2020, 11pm

Weighting:

35%

Length and/or format:

1500 words.

Purpose:

To demonstrate conceptual understanding of the test construction component of the unit by presenting the

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psychometric properties and the validity-based evidence (scale level) for a newly constructed psychological assessment. Learning outcomes assessed:

LO3, LO4, LO5

How to submit:

Students will submit their assessment through the link provided in LEO.

Return of assignment:

Assessment will be returned electronically three weeks after it is submitted.

Assessment criteria:

A marking rubric for this assignment is included in Appendix 1 at the end of this unit outline. In order to pass this unit, students much complete this assessment.

ASSIGNMENT 3 Final exam (1.5 hours) LEO exam comprised of both multiple choice and short-answer questions. This exam needs to be completed individually by students without consultation/collaboration with other students. . Due date:

To be held during the examination period.

Weighting:

40%

Length and/or format:

1.5 hours

Purpose:

The purpose of this exam is to assess students’ mastery of the content covered in the unit. There will be a focus on the applications of psychological assessment which is presented in the second half of the semester (i.e., content from weeks 7-12).

Learning outcomes assessed:

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5.

Assessment criteria:

There will be 50 multiple choice questions worth ½ a mark each. There will be 3 short answer questions worth 5 marks each. Short answer questions will be graded according to the accuracy and completeness of the responses.

Research Awareness Program (RAP) Psychology is an experimental discipline and participating in the RAP is an excellent way to better understand the research process and to learn about the research methods used in psychology. Students can earn up to 5% credit towards their final mark in this unit by signing up and participating in research projects advertised on ACU’s National School of Psychology Research Participation System. Students are encouraged to participate in both face-to-face and online research studies. Credit is earned at a rate of 1.5% per hour for participation in face-to-face studies and 1% per hour for participation in online studies. Further information about how to participate in research projects and earn credit for this unit can be found via the Research Participation System link.

If you prefer not to participate in the RAP as a research participant, you may opt to write a short review of a published psychological study using a template which is located on each unit’s LEO page. Your review will be subjected to a Turnitin analysis and also assessed by a qualified tutor. If it is concluded that you have made a gallant attempt to properly assess the publication, you’ll be awarded 2.5% credit points per review. That is, if you complete two reviews you can earn 5% credit towards this unit. Page 8 of 13

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All research participation and the submission of reviews must be completed by Friday of study week in the semester for which you intend to claim credit. No extensions will be granted, as students have the entire semester in which to complete their research participation and/or review. Credit cannot be transferred from one semester to another, but you can disperse your credit across psychology units within the one semester.

What do I need to do? 1. Consult the Research Participation System from time to time to gauge what is available for participation. Please note: Research project may be added at any time throughout the year, so it is worthwhile checking the Research Participation System on a regular basis to see what is available. Or check your LEO site for the how to complete the written review of research 2. Mix and Match: You could do all face-to-face studies, all on-line studies or all written reviews of research. Or you can mix and match your participation: doing any combination of two or all three types. 3. For example, one student might complete 2 x 1 hour face-to-face studies for a total of 3 credit points, plus 3 x 1 hour on-line studies for 3 credit points, and a written review of research for 2.5 credit ...