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.
Counseling Assessment and Testing 1
Which psychometric property indicates that a test consistently measures what it measures across repeated administrations?