Transcript Psychological Assessment - Erase Racism / FrontPage

Psychological Assessment
Has a history of harm to those not in the
dominant culture
Resources/References
 Handbook of Multicultural Assessment. Suzuki,
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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
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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) ).
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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.
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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.
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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 nondominant 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
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Example MSE: Change time markers from dates to events
 Use of picture or performance vs. verbal tasks
 Using the interpreter or cultural liaison
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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
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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
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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
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Parents
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Progressive relationships: Parents very willing to
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cooperate with counselor as they defer to
dominant culture
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Counselor (autonomy)
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Progressive relationship: Danger exists for
coalition against parents and lack of cooperation
by children due to suspicion of dominant-culture
counselor.
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Children
(conformity)
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Regressive relationship: confliction relationship.
Children see parents as naïve and used by
dominant culture. Parents may see children as
rude and disrespectful.
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(resistance)
NonDominant Culture counselor/Non
Dominant Culture family
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Parents
Progressive relationships: Real danger exists for
coalition between parents and counselor against
children
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Counselor (conformity)
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Progressive relationship: Counselor likely to be
unable to handle the hostility directed at her by
children for her subservience to dominant
culture.
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Children
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(conformity)
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Regressive relationship: confliction relationship.
Children see parents as naïve and used by
dominant culture. Parents may see children as
rude and disrespectful.
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(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:
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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:
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Sensory Attachment
Sensorimotor-autonomy
Pubertal-gender identity
Intracortical integration
The Tasks
Task 1: Developing Trust of Others
 Evolutionary Phase: Existence
 Survivalistic Function:
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Life enhancement: Pleasure-feelings of soothing calm
Life preservation: Pain- tense apprehension
 Neuropsychological Stage:
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Sensory Attachment
 Developmental task: Trust of Others
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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:
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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:
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Ecological Modification: Active
Ecological accommodation: Passive
 Neuropsychological Stage:
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Sensorimotor-autonomy
 Developmental task: Acquiring adaptive confidence
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“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:
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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:
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Progeny nurturance (other)
Individual Propagation (self)
 Neuropsychological Stage:
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Pubertal-gender identity
 Developmental task: Assimilating Sexual roles
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“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:
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Lack of security and self-other exchange.
Task 4: Balancing Reason and
Emotion
 Evolutionary Phase: Abstraction
 Survivalistic Function:
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Intellective-reasoning (thinking)
Affective resonance (feeling)
 Neuropsychological Stage:
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Intracortical integration
 Developmental task: Balancing reason and emotion
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“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:
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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 Foundation
Millon (1997)
Existential Aim
Life
Enhancement
Deficiency,
Imbalance,
Conflict
Life
Preservation
Replication Strategy
Reproductive
Propagation
Pleasure-Pain
Pleasure (Low)
Pain (low or high)
Adaptation Mode
Pleasure-Pain
Reversal
(conflicted)
Reproductive
Nurturance
Self-Other
Self (low)
Other
(high)
Self (high)
Other (low)
Self-Other
Reversal
(conflicted)
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
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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.
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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