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Running head: MULTICULTURAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT 1

The Multicultural Issues in Psychological Testing and Assessment. Simon Lombard Monash South Africa

Submitted as a Psychological Assessment Essay Due date: 29 March 2019 Tutor: Ms. Skye Hanekom Class: Wednesday at 08:00 – 10:00 am Word count: 2512

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Psychological assessment has been seen as being a critical component of the psychological process. Psychological assessment utilizes a number of different processes to evaluate behaviors, skills through the use of observations, interview and other assessment tools (Welfel, 2013). Therefore, psychological assessment desires with the assessment tools to change the path of individual’s direction of the individual’s treatment. Psychological assessment and testing helps individuals to understand their weaknesses but it also emphasizes an individual’s strengths

this now helps an individual to use the capabilities in an efficient way through the correction of their

weaknesses and the assessor will design a program to improve an individual’s strengths (koocher & keith-Spiegel, 1998). There has been a high number of cultural issues in the field if psychology in recent years has been so farreaching that many authors have branded multiculturalism as the term of psychology in its current era. Psychological tests can also be used to diagnose; however, it is not advised to diagnose an individual solely on test results. The following paper will outline the core multicultural issues related to psychological testing and assessment. The paper will then give a brief outline of the history of psychological testing and assessment. The issues to be discussed are ethical issues in assessment, psychological measures used to measure groups that it was not originally designed to measure. Moreover, the paper will explore language issues in test translation. Along with the issues involving testing and assessing children and mentally ill patients. Brief History of Psychological Testing and Assessment The move of psychology as science according to Foxcroft and Davies (2008), has brought on the advancement of scientific measures of human traits. In modern times psychological testing and assessment are seen as an important part in a number of fields within psychology. This is because testing and assessment offer a framework which is essential for their practice. Psychological tests and assessments are valued by psychologists as the offer clients with structured and in-depth feedback with regard to reporting and offer psychologists some knowledge about their clients.

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It is of importance to note that although the two terms psychological assessment and psychological testing seem to overlap one another they refer to separate sides. the two terms will be defined in the passages that follow. Psychological assessment is an integral part of psychology. Often it is psychological testing is confused with a psychological assessment, despite the fact that they are significantly different. Psychological testing can be defined as the process of measuring psychological-related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior (Cohen & swerdlik, 2009). Cohen and Swerdlik (2009) also define psychological assessment as the gathering and integration of psychological-related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation that is made using tools that include tests, interviews, behavioral observation, case studies, and specially designed apparatuses along with measurement procedures. Psychological assessment. A psychological assessment does not just rely on one test but rather includes data from a variety of other sources such as historical data, interviews, behavioral observation. Therefore, the process of psychological testing is merely the administration, scoring, and interpretation of test scores, and these scores are usually numeric in nature. This gives us an answer of a characteristic or attribute, whereas when looking at psychological assessment it provides us with a more logical problem-solving process, that at times can be very therapeutic to a client and enable the client to achieve their goals (Hood &johnson, 2007; Swerdlik, 2009). According to Weiner, (2003), the process of psychological tests can be an individual or group in administration. Whereas the process of psychological assessment is found to be more individual in its administration. Cohen and Swerdlik, (2009) state that psychological assessment consists of many different and connected parts.as compared to psychological testing. Ogloff and Douglas (2003) put forward that using psychological tests and measures on a population that it is not intended for can have serious consequences on that population group. Furthermore, the generalization of crosscultural results can lead to inconsistency before the law (Langstrom, 2004). Ethical Issues in Psychological Assessment

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The relationship between the client and the psychologist. According to Ackerman, Hilsenroth, Baity, and Blagys, (2000), puts forward that the relationship between the client and psychologist is of significant importance in psychological assessment. It is therefore important for a psychologist to be aware of their power on clients and to ensure that there is a good client psychologist relationship that fosters positive growth from the client (Feldman & Sullivan, 1971). According to Groth-Marnat, (2009), a psychologist who would speak down and use disapproving comment towards their clients were found to produce poor results on specific tests that were administered to the clients. A positive relationship with good feedback from the psychologist to the client can significantly improve an individual's performance on a test for the better (Finn, 2007). With regard to background factors in a multicultural context, the test results need to be interpreted in a sensitive manner such as family and cultural background, literacy levels, quality of education. If the test administrator fails to this, it will lead to incorrect explanations of test performance. Assessment in low-income and rural regions. Individual’s from poor socioeconomic regions are more likely to be ethically violated then their urban counterparts. Hargrove (1989), states that some people from poor socioeconomic areas are more likely to be concerned with confidentiality. Another issue that psychological assessment face in rural areas is clients being assessed might not have medical insurance thus not being able to afford hospital services and these people are likely to have limited funding for assessment tools (Suzuki & Ponterotto, 2008). In rural areas, geographic isolation is another concern as this makes it difficult for psychologists to consult with their colleges about complex issues. Furthermore, a psychologist working in a rural area also faces the challenge of referring their client to a more competent colleague for further assessment (Turchik et al. 2007). Other ethical issues the psychologists are faced with is conducting tests that they are not trained for, this may be as a result of not having sufficient qualified professionals around. A solution to this is that psychologist can administer these test under the supervision of a more qualified colleague (Werth, Hastings, & Riding-Malon, 2010). Language and multiculturalism issues

MULTICULTURAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT Language in multiculturalism is a complex issue as it having the same complexity as a construct used in cultural appropriateness and the way in which one decides to measure it. Test-takers has the right to be assessed in a language of their choice this is from an ethical perspective, this would normally be in their home language. For test-takers to be able to be assessed in their home language this presents the test administrator with a number of challenges that will be highlighted in the following paragraphs. The challenges that the test administrator is commonly faced with when trying to translate for example the tests instructions and verbal these are especially difficult when a test is being developed for indigenous African languages. The difficulty faced by test administrators to translate test items into the language of the test taker is that the need arises for the test administrator has to find multilingual experts to translate the test and to analyze the accuracy of the test items that have been translated. Foxcroft and Roodt (2009) assert that due to insufficient culturally appropriate measures that are available in an assortment of languages has been noted as a major issue in the past two decades. Furthermore, Patterson and Uys, (2005) established that language and culture affect test performance. due to the large variances in language, lingual abilities and comprehension the concept of culture is of critical importance when regarding the applicability of tests that are designed in a different country (e Silva & Laher, 2012) The test administrator is not the only one faced with challenges as the translator also faces challenges such as having to understand certain nuances and idiosyncrasies of the English language and the language that the test is being translated into. Moreover, the social meanings of certain words and phrases. Furthermore, items that contain proverbs cannot be simply translated word for a culture group that the test was originally designed for, the translator will first need to adopt the proverb by finding a similar proverb with a similar meaning for the culture in which the test I being designed for. In addition to the above-mentioned translator, challenges are that some words and phrases in indigenous languages cannot be found at all times in the language that test is being translated into. To solve this problem, translators have to use long descriptions to try and explain a certain word or phrase that could not be directly translated.

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When it comes to testing adaptation and translation Roodt and Foxcroft (2009) emphasize that there are a number of challenges that one has to consider. When it comes to psychological assessment South Africa has followed more international developments (Foxcroft, 1997, & Meiring, et al, 2005), the issue here is that inclusion of some factors that are seen to be invaluable in some contexts might be invaluable in the development of a psychological assessment in South Africa. Moreover, with the test being translated to be used on a different culture and in another language is that certain norms can be neglected as some of these tests can be outdated. The Issue of Assessing Children Children can be given assessments for a number of reasons these reasons can include being assessed by a school counseling, health professional this might be to assess a child’s conditions (Hood & Johnson, 2008). Even in the assessment of children all the ethical rules also apply to them. When a child is being assessed it is important for the psychologist or the person administering the test or assessment to receive informed consent from the child’s parent provided the child is under the age of 18 (Pope & Vasquez, 2010). An Issue in Assessing Mentally Disabled Individuals As a result of patients limited consent capacity due to their mental disability, the test administrator should convey the goal of the test in simple language in order to receive their consent. All patients should be informed about the consequences of the psychological assessment by using easy to understand language and even use illustrative examples (Bernet & Dulcan, 1999). In some cases, there have to be some modifications made to the standard procedures of assessment tools are suggested to produce more valid results. On the other hand, test administrators should be notified if there have been modifications made to tests, and these should be mentioned in the reports given (Lee, Reynolds and Wilson, 2003). When the interpretation of test findings is questioned as a result of an individual’s mental disability, this is seen as a restriction while handing over test results and this should be mentioned (Adams and Boyd, 2010).

MULTICULTURAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT The Use of Appropriate Norms Difficulties in the developmental assessment are presented in Age norms especially in non-Western societies, whereby keeping children's ages is not the norm. The problem that the assessment administration face with this is that the ages of the children had to then be estimated for example when is the onset of menstruation, this will give the administrator a gauge as to what the possible age of a particular group of students, or the level of school standards, and from other sources. For a test administrator to search through historical records, the administrator might be able to estimate the year in which a child was born for example the test administrator might talk to parents and try and find out the year that a child is born. The parent might reply and say that the child was born during the time of the great flood. This historical event will give the administrator a gauge of the time when the child might have been born. Therefore, when results are being interpreted on a developmental test, a child's chronological age is of paramount importance. When the test administrator has to estimate the age of children being tested, the administrator has to make provision for an incorrect estimate. This would then lead the administrator to conclude to some extent that the developmental delay observed might not be as previously observed. The lack of appropriate local norms. The use of ethical test practices need to be locally developed and should be able to interpret test performance accurately. Normed tests that are developed in the United States and in Europe are used widely across Africa, these norms that have been developed elsewhere should be used with caution, and it has been noted that there has been no attempt is made to develop local norms. The problem with using inappropriate norms is that it leads to inappropriate decisions as a result of being over or under-identified norms. The reason why local norms are not developed is that there is an absence of test development expertise in Africa. Conclusion It is no doubt that psychological tests and assessment provides critical information relating to an individual’s behavior, cognitive ability, personality, and thoughts and emotions along with underlying

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psychological problems. The effect of psychological client relationship with feedback on assessment results. Therefore, with regard to multicultural issues is that there should be a deep-rooted relationship between the test administrator and the test taker. From the above-mentioned evidence it is important to understand that when assessment and testing take place it is important to be sensitive to community’s cultural background as this lies at the very core of ethical practices in a multicultural context. There is a number of issues that have been presented and with that it has opened the door to possible solutions that can be implemented to deal with the issues that have been presented for example the issue of language a possible solution to this would be to employ demanding translation procedures this would allow the test and measures to be representative of the people it was developed for. Furthermore, looking at way going forward psychologist and others who administer test should change the way that people perceive tests. This can be accomplished by creating awareness around the importance of assessments and tests. It is suggested by that ethical consciousness is of paramount importance along with a code of conduct, knowledge of legislation, and standard practices. This will help curb the issue of mismanagement. Moreover, there is a great need to develop more measures locally would benefit assessment in Africa and more particularly South Africa. In order to attain this, it would be necessary for professionals in the field to be more active in the development of tests and assessments (Patterson & Uys,2005). Lastly there should be further studies conducted that shall compare a greater number of test formats for example supervised computer-based tests and internet based administration. The benefits are that there will be a more broaden choice of administration and this will make it more relevant to a more diverse groups these can include the poorly literate and the disabled. Therefore psychologist try and base their findings on sufficient information that supports their results.

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