The Assessment Process

Abstract

Abstract Assessment psychology is the field of behavioral science concerned with methods of identifying similarities and differences among people in their personal characteristics and capacities. Psychological assessment involves integrating information about people gleaned from test protocols, interview responses, behavioral observations, collateral reports, and historical documents. These assessment procedures are employed in diverse ways for the purpose of responding to a broad range of referral questions in such companion fields as clinical, educational, health, forensic, and industrial/organizational psychology. This chapter introduces a volume that elaborates the diversity of assessment procedures, the nature of the assessment questions that arise in various settings, and the types of assessment methods commonly employed to address these questions. Assessment is conceptualized in this introduction as a three‐stage process consisting of: (1) collecting assessment data of appropriate kinds and in sufficient amounts to address referral questions in meaningful and useful ways, (2) interpreting assessment data in a manner that provides accurate descriptions of respondents' psychological characteristics and behavioral tendencies, and (3) utilizing descriptions of respondents to formulate conclusions and recommendations that help to answer referral questions. The discussion identifies distinctive tasks and critical decision‐making issues associated with each phase of this process.

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