Ethical challenges in psychological test administration and scoring

Ethics, Technology and Trends in Testing

Ethics, Technology, and Trends in Testing

It is vital that a psychologist ensure that they observe ethical concerns and principles when they are carrying out psychological tests. The APA has laid out the various ethical principles that should be followed by psychologists when dealing with patients and conducting research. The use of technology has been beneficial, but it has also come with added concerns in regards to ethics. In as much as technology saves time and makes the evaluation process simpler, it also raises ethical concerns like confidentiality, accuracy, and psychologist competency. These issues should be properly addressed if technology is to continue being used for psychological testing. However, one needs to understand that the growing use of technology within psychology is to further the clients' interests not the psychologist.

Test Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation

Psychological tests are visual, written, or verbal evaluations that are administered in order to assess the emotional and cognitive functioning of adults and children. The tests are mainly used to assess the mental attributes and abilities, including ability and achievement, personality and neurological functioning. However, psychological tests are prone to errors, and they are mostly categorized as systemic and unsystemic errors. In the administration of the psychological test, there might be errors in the instructions, which would result in the wrong understanding of the question (Kane, 2013). The errors might exist in the instructions provided to the psychologist or the test-taker. Wrong instructions do reduce the reliability of the test. In order for a test to be deemed reliable, it must have an accurate method for scoring and interpreting results. All psychological tests come with a set of scoring instructions. If the scoring instructions have errors, then the test would not be reliable. How one psychologist interprets the results of a test is not the same way another psychologist would interpret the results. Therefore, it is vital that the correct interpretation is made by following the provided criteria.

APA ethical principles govern how a psychologist can administer a test in order to ensure that they do not violate any ethics. In relation to the administration of a test, a psychologist needs to ensure that they administer, adapt, or use assessment techniques or instruments in a manner that is appropriate in light of the evidence or research (Wierzbicki, Siderits, & Kuchan, 2012). This means that the psychologist has to ensure that the methods they are in line with the test they are administering. The psychologist also has to make use of assessment instruments whose reliability and validity has been established for using with the population they are testing. According to the APA ethical code of conduct Standard 9.09, psychologists should select the scoring and interpretation service based on the evidence of the validity of the procedures and program. They should also include other appropriate considerations in the selection of the scoring and interpretation services. Any administered test has a purpose, and the purpose of the test would determine the correct scoring and interpretation service that would be used. The chosen service will ensure that the test is reliable because the scoring would have been selected beforehand.

Standard 2 and Standard 3 are indirectly related to psychological assessment because they deal with how a psychologist should handle the human test subjects, and the competency of the psychologist. A psychologist should only conduct or carry our tests within their field of competence, which is based on their training, education, study, or consultation. Concerning how a psychologist should deal with his human test subjects, standard 3 contains ethical principles related to avoiding harm, and obtaining informed consent from the test subjects. Psychologists' should ensure that they do not cause any harm to their clients, students, research participants, or patients. They should also minimize harm where it is unavoidable. When conducting research, the psychologist should ensure that he/she obtains informed consent from the test subjects.

To minimize testing errors, one should ensure that both the test administrator and the test-taker clearly and well understand the test instructions. With clear instructions, the potential for error is reduced and the instructions can be easily understood and followed. The assessment techniques selected should be in line with the test being administered. This means that the assessment techniques should be appropriate for the selected test. The scoring method should also be well established before the research begins. Using a well-established methodology would ensure that the results can be validated by other researchers, which would promote the validity of the test. The scoring methodology should not have any errors because this would affect the reliability of the test.

Technology and Psychological Testing

Technology has made it easy for a psychologist to carry out a test because it makes it easy for a psychologist to conduct tests and save on time. Technology also makes it easy for the study participants to undertake the test at their convenience. When administering a test, it is easy to offer the test using technology and maintain ethical integrity (Nicholson, 2011). Technology also assists in the scoring of the tests, as the psychologist does not have to score the test individually. Using technology the psychologist can input the test scores and the computer will calculate the score based on the set criteria or scoring method. This speeds up the test process and results generation. The obtained results can be easily interpreted by using technology as there are programs developed for interpreting test results. Using this programs, the test results can be easily relied upon because they would not be prone to bias or errors.

Technologies used in psychological testing save time and eliminate the margin of error. The employed technologies are comprehensive and offer more objective results that can be easily accepted by others (Scheu & Lawrence, 2013). This is beneficial because the validity of the results can be easily acceptable if a computer program and not a clinician generate the results. Using technology, one psychological test can be administered to hundreds of people at one time, which would not be possible if the same had to be administered using face-to-face. Some of the limitation of using technology are that the results obtained might be too generalized and would not provide any differential information. There is some potential for misusing the computer program because they can be used by anyone. If an individual who is inadequately trained uses the program, they might misuse the program, and the result would be incorrect information or results. The results obtained from computer programs should not be interpreted as true all the time.

There is an increased risk of validity when technology is used to conduct a psychological test. The accuracy of the results obtained is dependent on the data that is input into the program, if the data is wrong the results would also be wrong, and this cannot be corrected easily, which would be an ethical problem. Confidentiality of the participants and their test is not guaranteed when technology is used. There is potential for cultural bias when using technology because a computer cannot determine the results obtained are from a specific culture. When using technology, it is easy for a participant's information to be leaked and this would affect the participants privacy and confidentiality. The participant would have to input some identifiable information that should not be used for evaluation, but would be used for identification.

Recording keeping and fees principle is the principle that governs the use of technology in technological testing. This principle dictates how the psychologist should handle and process the information obtained and how to keep safely the information using technology. Principle 9.06 also governs the interpretation of assessment results using automated means. The psychologist has to keep in mind the characteristics of the person being tested irrespective of the assessment methodology employed. When explaining the assessment results, the psychologist might make use of technologies, and while doing so they should observe principle 9.11, which requires that the individual is given their results.

When using technology, the psychologist should ensure that they do not violate the privacy and confidentiality of the participant. To guarantee privacy and confidentiality, the personally identifiable information collected should only be used for administration purposes, and should not be accessible to unauthorized individuals. The results obtained from the computer system should be closely analyzed and interpreted to ensure that the results are not generalized and the generated results correct and valid. All individuals using the technology should be properly trained and be accredited to use the technology for psychological testing. This would mitigate against competency and ensure that the tests are administered and evaluated by qualified individuals.