Counseling Assessment and Testing 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which psychometric property indicates that a test consistently measures what it measures across repeated administrations?
- Validity
- Reliability (Correct answer)
- Standardization
- Norming
Correct answer: Reliability
Reliability refers to the consistency and stability of test scores across time, raters, or forms, and is a prerequisite for test validity.
Question 2: Content validity refers to:
- The test's correlation with future performance
- Whether the test items adequately represent the domain being measured (Correct answer)
- The internal consistency of test items
- Standardization of administration procedures
Correct answer: Whether the test items adequately represent the domain being measured
Content validity assesses whether test items adequately and representatively sample the full domain of content being measured.
Question 3: A norm-referenced test compares an individual's score to:
- A predetermined mastery standard
- The scores of a standardization sample (Correct answer)
- The test's theoretical construct
- The individual's own prior scores
Correct answer: The scores of a standardization sample
Norm-referenced tests interpret scores relative to a normative or standardization sample, indicating how an individual compares to others in the reference group.
Question 4: The standard error of measurement (SEM) represents:
- The variability of scores within a normative sample
- The expected amount of error in any individual's observed score (Correct answer)
- The difference between two test forms
- The coefficient alpha of the test
Correct answer: The expected amount of error in any individual's observed score
SEM estimates how much an observed score differs from a person's true score due to measurement error, and is used to construct confidence intervals around scores.
Question 5: The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is best described as a(n):
- Intelligence test
- Projective personality assessment
- Self-report symptom severity measure (Correct answer)
- Neuropsychological battery
Correct answer: Self-report symptom severity measure
The BDI is a 21-item self-report questionnaire measuring the severity of depressive symptoms, widely used in clinical research and practice.
Question 6: A counselor suspects cultural bias in a test used with a client from a minority background. This concern relates primarily to:
- Test reliability
- Test-retest validity
- Construct validity and fairness (Correct answer)
- Predictive efficiency
Correct answer: Construct validity and fairness
Cultural bias threatens construct validity and test fairness by systematically disadvantaging examinees from certain cultural backgrounds, potentially measuring cultural familiarity rather than the intended construct.