Psychological Assessment

Has a history of harm to those not in the dominant culture

Resources/References

Handbook of Multicultural Assessment. Suzuki, Ponterotto, & Meller. (2001).

Handbook of Racial-Cultural Psychology and Counseling: Training and Practice, Volume 2. Carter. (2005).

Addressing Cultural Complexities in Practice. Hayes. (2001).

Assessing the Dynamics of Gender in Couples and Families: The Gendergram.” Family Relations, 1995, 44. White & Tyson-Rawson.

Cultural Identity Development and Family Assessment: An Interaction Model. Counseling Psychologist, 1993, 21. Gunshue, G. V.

Facts

Over 14% of school age children come from non-English Language homes.

In California, over 1/3rd of school age children are LEP (limited English Proficient).

Over five million students are inappropriately tested each year by standardized assessment instruments.

Legal Issues Use of tests with Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups

Public Law-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975: Requires tests to be nonbiased and nondiscriminatory and when possible given in a student’s native language (Cases: Diana (1970) and Guadalupe (1972) ).

Griggs V Duke Power: A general ability test can not be used for hiring black employees because the test does not accurately predict their job performance.

Nothing in the Act precludes the use of testing or measuring procedures; obviously they are useful. What Congress has forbidden is giving these devices and mechanisms controlling force unless they are demonstrably a reasonable measure of job performance. Congress has not commanded that the less qualified be preferred over the better qualified simply because of minority origins. Far from disparaging job qualifications as such, Congress has made such qualifications the controlling factor, so that race, religion, nationality, and sex become irrelevant. What Congress has commanded is that any tests used must measure the person for the job and not the person in the abstract.

Legal Issues (cont.)

Larry P. v Riles: Standardized IQ tests are restricted since their use results in a disproportionate number of Black students being placed in EMR classes. Larry P. v. Riles is the 1972 California Supreme Court decision that

ruled using IQ tests to place children in Special Education violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because the tests were found to be culturally biased. The ruling also expanded the rights of parents of Special Education children. The court mandated that parents be notified of their child's placement in Special Education and made aware of specific education plans for their children that were based on a multidisciplinary assessment. Parents were also entitled to a hearing if they disagreed with the education plans created by their child's school.

Interestingly, It does not appear that the WISC-IV has done anything to develop more appropriate norms or to reduce the bias. Does anyone know anything different from this?

Test Bias

Tests may be considered biased if they project only predominant values and knowledge and do not consider the full range of linguistic and cultural experiences of people in the United States.

The implication here is that test performance of an individual who comes from a non-dominant culture background or is lower in social status may be affected in ways not intended by the test maker. (Suzuki, Ponterotto, Meller)

Attempts to make Testing more culturally competent Norm on minority groups

What is the problem here? Translate to the clients language

What is the problem here? Test in both languages for bilingual children

“Adjusting administration and interpretation” Impacts standardization No clear rules

Example MSE: Change time markers from dates to events Use of picture or performance vs. verbal tasks Using the interpreter or cultural liaison

To gain knowledge of what the client would be expected to know in their culture

Attempts to make Testing more culturally competent Compare client’s performance to premorbid functioning as

opposed to other’s performance whenever possible. Shifting from diagnosis to a focus on strengths and areas for

growth Testing limits

Exploring responses after the testing is over Inform of the correct answer and see if the person

understands why this answer is correct (not used if retesting will be required)

Ask client why they might be having difficulties (ask about disabilities or devises normally utilized prior to testing)

Repeating items without time limits If this works, do not forget to check into processing speed

DSM Suggestions

Cultural Identity Cultural explanations of the individual’s illness Cultural factors related to psychosocial,

environmental, and levels of functioning Overall cultural assessment for diagnosis and care Cultural elements of the relationship between

individual and clinician In addition, Gunshue (1993), presents an interaction

Model for Family Assessment that takes into account the relationships between the ethnic identity of the therapist and the family, as well as the identity development level of 1) the Counselor, 2) the Parents, and 3) the Children

Dominant Culture counselor/Non Dominant Culture family Parents

Progressive relationships: Parents very willing to cooperate with counselor as they defer to dominant culture

Counselor (autonomy)

Progressive relationship: Danger exists for coalition against parents and lack of cooperation by children due to suspicion of dominant-culture counselor.

Children

(conformity)

Regressive relationship: confliction relationship. Children see parents as naïve and used by dominant culture. Parents may see children as rude and disrespectful.

(resistance)

NonDominant Culture counselor/Non Dominant Culture family Parents

Progressive relationships: Real danger exists for coalition between parents and counselor against children

Counselor (conformity)

Progressive relationship: Counselor likely to be unable to handle the hostility directed at her by children for her subservience to dominant culture.

Children

(conformity)

Regressive relationship: confliction relationship. Children see parents as naïve and used by dominant culture. Parents may see children as rude and disrespectful.

(resistance)

Grieger and Ponterotto (1995)

Components to examine in the Clinical Assessment

Client’s level of Psychological Mindedness, as well as families level of Psychological Mindedness and attitude toward counseling

Psychological Mindedness: The degree to which the client understands their problem as psychological or emotional in nature.

Influences on the level of support the client receives for going to a mental health professional, as well as their level of comfort in doing so.

Client and Family’s level of acculturation Often not identical and influence the degree

of comfort each feels in the therapeutic situation, as well as the freedom the client feels to make choices consistent with mainstream American values

Difference in level can often be a source of conflict in family system.

What is the families attitude toward acculturation for themselves as well as their children (which can be different).

Items from the “Person In Culture Interview” for assessment

(Berg-Cross and Takushi-Chinen, 1995)

Know the client’s culture specific definition of deviancy. Include questions such as:

What would be the best (most pleasurable) part about getting rid of your problem?

In what way do your current problems create pain for you? For your family?

Describe your most embarrassing experience in the past year and in your life, or describe what might be an embarrassing situation?

What kinds of things make you angry, and how would someone know you were angry? How can your life be more meaningful?

Know what accepted norms of behavior are:

How do all the members of your family express anger? What types of things make you feel important? How do people in your family get that feeling of

importance and self-esteem? If you fit in a home and in your community, tell what a

normal day would be like. What type of normal day are you striving for?

Each little community has certain images of a successful person. In what ways would your community judge you to be successful or unsuccessful?

Be familiar with culturally acceptable methods of social influence (for instance: advice from an elder, or healing rituals)

Draw a totem pole of the important people in your life. Put the weakest person on the bottom, and the powerful person on the top. Be sure to include yourself and anyone in the community or elsewhere who is very important in your life.

On a day-to-day basis, how do you learn new things? Who gives you new information? How do you go about learning new information?

Know what community resources are available to the client and which ones are likely to be used.

What types of things make you feel that you are living life to the fullest?

Who are the people closet to you? Who are the people most distant from you? What types of things do you feel you are responsible

for on a day-to-day basis as a human being? What types of things do you feel your family is

responsible for? What types of things do you think your society or

community is responsible for?

The Gendergram(White and Tyson-Rawson, 1995)

Assessing multigenerational beliefs and traditions in relation to gender and gender

roles

Significant Individuals identified by the client What are your significant memories of this person? Try and remember how you experienced life at this

age. How did this person influence how you felt about yourself as a female/male? What did you learn about being a woman/man from this person?

What did you learn from this person about how women/men interacted with other women/men? What did you learn from this person about how women/men interacted with men/women?

As an adult looking back on these relationships, in what ways has this person had a lasting influence on how you view yourself in your gender?

Aspects of individual development

How did changes in your physical appearance, whether from maturation, accidents, or illness, influence how you felt about yourself as a woman/man?

What did you learn about your sexuality during this time period? How did you learn it?

How did what you learned impact your definition of yourself as a woman/man?

What spiritual or religious influences were important to you at this time and how do you think they have informed your feelings about yourself as a woman/man?

Environment of Family of Origin

Describe the emotional climate of your home during this time? How was affection expressed between women? Men? Between

women and men? Between parents or adults and children? How was conflict handled? Did men and women express the same emotions differently? How secure did you feel when you were at home? How was conformity to your family’s gender norms rewarded?

How was nonconformity punished? What did men and women do in your family (at home, work, in

the community, for recreation, as caregivers, as disciplinarians, abd generally in relationship with others?)

What were your family’s criteria for a successful man? A successful woman?

Larger Society

What were your peer group’s gender norms or rules at this time, and how was conformity to them rewarded? How was nonconformity punished?

Were there any conflicts between the gender norms or rules of your family and those of your peer group? If so, how did you handle them?

What did you learn at school or work during this time about the roles of men and women?

At this time, how would you have described the ideal female? The ideal male?

Do you remember anything from television or other media that influenced your ideas about being a woman/man?

Linking the past to present

What gender-related roles do you notice yourself playing at this stage in your life?

What patterns do you see in gender issues at this stage of your life?

Are there repetitive themes in your relationships?

Which of these roles, patterns, and themes do you want to enhance and continue?

Which of these roles, patterns, and themes do you want to work to change?

Standardized Tests

Personality Testing

Avoid using with Non Dominant Populations

Let’s look at Standardized tests and theory

Let’s start with the one that measures Axis II disorders, the MCMI….

MCMI

Populations

Adults (18+)in mental health settings Designed to detect personality disorders Not for used with “normal” populations Administration time: 20-30 minutes

Norms

86% White, 8% Black, 2% Hispanic, and 4% Other 82% Finished High school 18% had college degree In the area of personality in which values, beliefs and

“norms” determine what is defined as a disorder, it is important to understand Million’s theory of Personality Disorders to determine if the use of this test with non-white, lower SES, less “acculturated” or immigrant populations is appropriate even if it becomes “normed” for these populations.

Theoretical Tasks

Based on Erickson and “Evolutionary” Models Progresses thru a series of developmental

tasks that are said to be survivalistic in functioning

States that is correlates with Neuropsychological Stages Sensory Attachment Sensorimotor-autonomy Pubertal-gender identity Intracortical integration

The Tasks

Task 1: Developing Trust of Others

Evolutionary Phase: Existence Survivalistic Function:

Life enhancement: Pleasure-feelings of soothing calm Life preservation: Pain- tense apprehension

Neuropsychological Stage: Sensory Attachment

Developmental task: Trust of Others Trust that one can rely on the affections and support of others Specific experiences become highly generalized and come to

characterize the child’s view of the full environment since children are unable to make fine discriminations.

Not Attained: Learn to mistrust the environment, to anticipate further stress, to view

others as harsh and undependable Tend to be withdrawn and avoid people for fear that people will

recreate the discomfort and anguish that was experienced in the past.

Task 2: Acquiring Adaptive Confidence Evolutionary Phase: Adaptation Survivalistic Function:

Ecological Modification: Active Ecological accommodation: Passive

Neuropsychological Stage: Sensorimotor-autonomy

Developmental task: Acquiring adaptive confidence “Rather than remain a passive receptacle for environmental forces, clay

to be molded, they acquire competencies that enlarge their vistas and allow them to become legitimate actors in their environments.”

Feel good about what they can do Not Attained:

Doubts in competence and adequacy. It is not about whether they have the skills, but the fact that they lack the confidence to try, to venture out or to compete.

Task 3: Assimilating Sexual Roles Evolutionary Phase: Replication Survivalistic Function:

Progeny nurturance (other) Individual Propagation (self)

Neuropsychological Stage: Pubertal-gender identity

Developmental task: Assimilating Sexual roles “Security is found in peer relationships in that youngsters share a code

as to what constitutes appropriate gender behaviors” “For the most part, the adolescent finds security in accepting the peer-gender norms as preliminary guides regarding how to regulate impulses, feelings, and sexual inclinations” (PS I just threw up in my mouth a little!)

The mutuality experienced in struggling thru the same pubertal issues is important in this task

Not Attained: Lack of security and self-other exchange.

Task 4: Balancing Reason and Emotion Evolutionary Phase: Abstraction Survivalistic Function:

Intellective-reasoning (thinking) Affective resonance (feeling)

Neuropsychological Stage: Intracortical integration

Developmental task: Balancing reason and emotion “Formulation of a clear image of self as a certain “kind of adult”, an

identity discernable from others, capable of fashioning independent judgments and their own course of action.”

A coherent system of internalized values to guide one thru changing and varied environments.

Not Attained: Inability to meet life’s tasks rationally and unable to handle

discouraging emotional forces that may arise. Identity may be defined through the goals and needs of others vs. the self.

OK…So Obviously this theory is full of isms and overly pathologizing, but where can we find its usefulness

In helping to conceptualize possible strengths and areas to broaden to help a person to function more holistically as contextually and culturally appropriate.

Use your reframing skills to help depathologize and reduce your own judgments.

Theoretical FoundationMillon (1997)

Existential Aim Replication Strategy

Life Enhancement

Life Preservation

Reproductive Propagation

Reproductive Nurturance

Deficiency, Imbalance, Conflict

Pleasure-Pain Self-Other

Pleasure (Low)Pain (low or high)

Pleasure-Pain Reversal (conflicted)

Self (low)Other (high)

Self (high)Other (low)

Self-Other Reversal (conflicted)

Adaptation Mode PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Passive: Accommodation

Schizoid ( lp,lp)Depressive(lp,hp)

Masochistic Dependent Narcissistic(entitled without work)

Compulsive

Active: Modification

Avoidant Sadistic Histrionic Antisocial Negativistic

Structural pathology

Schizotypal Borderline,Paranoid

Borderline Paranoid Borderline Paranoid

IQ Testing

Just some info you should know on IQ testing Robert Guthrie’s work on the history of intelligence testing in the United States emphasizes

the fact that during the first half of the 20th century, intelligence test results were used to promote social and policy biases against many groups of people, including ethnic European immigrants and people of color residing in the United States. Research discusses both racial/ethnic test score disparities and identifies the cognitive strengths of African American and other racial/ethnic children and adults.

• Research exists related to intelligence testing of language-minority persons, including the need to conduct such tests in both English and the native language of the person being tested, and recognized procedures for translating tests. There is a body of existing research that examines nonpsychometric approaches to the study of intelligence.

• Robert Sternberg’s work on triarchic theory of intelligence should be given consideration. Traditional intelligence tests measure analytic intelligence and ignore practical and creative intelligence components. As well as Tacit Intelligence.

A psychological test usually originated in one culture and therefore is designed to get at construct which at the originating point is an assumed etic. This may result in forcing onto another culture a dimension that makes little sense in that context such as intelligence, creativity, depression, mental illness, etc.

Let’s do some hands on examination of test items WAIS-R- An Intelligence Test