Diversity in Psychological Testing Research Paper

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Psychological Testing: Establishing Diversity

Psychological testing is the backbone of how psychologists are able to gain a higher level of understanding regarding human beings and how/why they act as they do. Good psychological exams can help tremendously in the task of problem-solving and in getting a better snapshot of a person's psychological or mental health issues while identifying strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, a precise psychological exam helps to exam an individual's precise point in time in a mode which examines their present-functioning in terms of test data. There are a range of psychological tests which are available, many of which are the results of decades and decades of research and procedures. The four main types of psychological tests are as follows: clinical interviews, assessment of intellectual functioning, personality assessment, and then behavioral assessments.

However, since psychological tests emerged within the field, the issue of diversity in psychological testing was an issue that was thrust to the forefront. "For clients, parents and clinicians, the central issue is one of long-term consequences that may occur when mean test results differ from one ethnic group to another -- Blacks, Hispanics, Americans Indians, Asian-Americans and so forth. Important concerns include, among others, that psychiatric clients may be overdiagnosed, students disproportionately placed in special classes and applicants unfairly denied employment or college admission because of purported bias" (Reynolds & Suzuki, 2003).

One way that I would develop a test would be to make the bulk of the test less verbal and word-based but to have the questions on the exam more picture-based, as I feel that there are more images, colors and notions related to those factors which are transcend cultural boundaries.

While individual backgrounds and ethnic groups might have their own standards of what is normal and acceptable and might have been impacted by their own specific sociopolitical factors, there are still certain images and visual representations which are universal to the human condition and to the entire human experience.

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The key in developing this test would revolve around uncovering what those experiences are, and finding a way to harness them for psychological testing. In this manner, by uncovering some of the more universal trends of the human experience, it would in theory be possible to uncover some trends which would be considered normal or abnormal -- patterns would develop.

In this manner, the psychological test would be evocative, at least foundationally to the Rorschach inkblot test, a form of projective psychological test, which can unveil personality and emotional functioning and is used most often in forensic testing. While this type of test, is used by many professionals in the field, has been criticized for a failure to accurately identify the range of psychological disorders, the test has shown to be effective in the diagnosis of illnesses characterized by distorted thinking, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (Cheery, 2013). This is largely because of the fact that the test revolves around pinpointing universal themes of interpretation to visual stimuli and working to classify these interpretations into norm of regular thinking vs. irregular. This test in and of itself can be quite useful in allowing for the assessment of human behavior according to trends inherent in the human condition. This test, because of the fact that it is based on visual cues and interpretation, offers forms of interpretation along the lines of broader references, rather than the narrower codes of reasoning given to non-minorities.

Thus, the test proposed here seeks to emulate such testing in a more precise manner. In fact, this test could even have an artwork component involved with participants forced to look at different paintings, such as scenes of war or battlefields and they have to select an answer which best describes how they feel regarding such a field. For instance, with a scene of a carnaged battlefield, the test taker….....

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