STEP- 2016
(Skills Training Exercise for Psychiatry Postgraduates)
contactjapneet@hotmail.com
WHAT ARE PSYCHOMETRICS?
• Basically means ‘mental measurement’ (psycho – metrics)
• includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality
traits, as well as educational measurement
Intelligence
Neuroticism
Aggression
Key questions are:
• What are the ways by which people differ and how can we objectively measure
the differences?
• Over the last 100 years or so the discipline has become increasingly more
scientific in its approach
DISTINCTION
Psychometric Psychological
Testing Assessment
- variety of test scores
relatively straightforward
- obtained from multiple test
process wherein a particular methods
scale/test is administered to
- considers history, referral
obtain a specific score
information, and observed
behavior
TYPES OF TESTS
II Personality Tests:
I (Human) Ability/
Objective &
III Therapy IV Psychiatric
Disability Tests Projective Assessment Assessment
• Achievement Tests • Objective • Behaviour • Assessment (scales)
• Aptitude Tests Personality Tests Assessment for psychotic
features, anxiety,
• Intelligence Tests
• Projective • Cognitive Behaviour depression, mania,
• Learning Disability substance abuse etc.
Personality/ Assessment
Tests
Psychodiagnostic
• Neuropsychological Tests
Assessment
FORMAT
Individual tests:
test administrator
gives a test to a Group tests: single
single person examiner gives a test
to a group of people
ADVANTAGES OF PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS
Providing insights not
Data represented
Objective
Demonstrable Add reliability and available through
numerically statistical validity validity observations and
interviews
VARIOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AND BATTERIES
IQ ASSESSMENT
¨Tests of intellectual functioning are designed to measure and assess general mental
abilities (relative to peers of the same age group) and may include tests of the
following abilities: reasoning, problem solving, abstract thinking, judgment,
academic learning, and to some degree, experiential learning
¨IQ (Intelligence Quotient) = MA (Mental Age)
______________________ x 100
CA (Chronological Age)
- This gives the Mental Age (from a table) and then IQ is calculated
2. Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS)
- originally developed by the American psychologist Edgar Arnold Doll
- The Indian version is by Dr. A.J. Malin
Domains:
- The following illustrate the categories:
1. Self-help - general: Reaches for nearby objects
Procedure:
- Start with item number 1, what ever may be the age of the child and go on till the item
appropriate to his/her age level
Scoring:
- Raw scores are converted to an age equivalent score expressed as Social age
- The Social age is then divided by the Chronological age, multiplied by 100 yielding a
Social quotient (SQ)
- The Social Quotient can be considered a proximate intelligence quotient (IQ) (High
correlation of 0.80)
3. Binet-Kamat Test (BKT)
- Age range: 3 and above
- Items are arranged chronologically
ICD CLASSIFICATION OF MR
IQ Range Classification
50-69 Mild
35-49 Moderate
20-34 Severe
Below 20 Profound
4. Wechsler Adult Performance Intelligence Scale (WAPIS)
• Adaptation of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
• By Prabha Ramalinga Swamy
• Age range: 15-44 years
• Education norms: Literate - 5th std and above
• IQ range: 40-139
Sub-tests:
i. Picture completion
ii. Digit symbol
iii. Block Design
iv. Picture Arrangement
- Arrange the pictures given in a particular sequence and form a logical story
- measures Social Intelligence
v. Object Assembly
- assemble the given pieces and make an object
IQ Range Classification
120-129 Superior
90-109 Average
80-89 Below Average or Dull
Normal
70-79 Borderline
PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
Regularly used Personality Tests in Clinical Practice
1. 16 PF TEST
- Lexical Hypothesis
- Check the reading ability and comfort with the language of test administration
- Ensure test takers are responding appropriately and not skipping items
- Read the instructions aloud
- Most of the questions on the test ask about your feelings, attitudes or behavior
- there are no right and wrong answers
- give the answer that comes to you first
- Try to avoid the middle (b) answer and stay with the (a) or (c) answers but if you
really can’t decide, just choose (b)
2. MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI)
Features
- most frequently used clinical personality test
- self-administered
- usually takes between 1 – 1.5 hours to complete
- The client simply responds T (True) or F (False) to each item on the basis of whether
the statement applies to him/her
- can be administered from a printed booklet, by audio cassette, or by computer
- translated into many languages
Procedure
- Given by Henry A. Murray
- Indian adaptation by Uma Choudhary
- 10 + 1 blank card
- Gives an in depth knowledge of the patient’s personality and his/her interpersonal
relations
Instructions
“I am going to show you some pictures, one at a time, and your task is to make a story
about it. What has led up to the event (past), what is happening at the moment
(present), what the characters are thinking and feeling and what is the outcome
(future)”
Some cards and their significance:
Card I – Achievement Card
Card II – Biological/Family Card
Procedure
- Bilaterally symmetrical inkblots
- 10 cards on a white background
Popular responses of the 10 cards:
• Card I - Bat / Butterfly
Interpretation
Depression Index
Coping-Dericit Index
Hyper-vigilance Index
Obsessive-style Index
Perceptual-Thinking Index
Perceptual-Thinking Index
- Indicates the presence of psychosis
Organicity
- The strongest indicator of organicity in RIBT is:
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS
- Neuropsychological assessment is a clinical examination of both the working brain
and the dysfunctional brain
- The goal is to identify a deficit in functioning and not to test the limits of the top end
of performance
Approaches in Neuropsychological tests
1. Ideometric approach
• Clinical examination requiring in-depth examination of individual patients
• Emphasizes the patient’s premorbid functioning (education, occupation, social
functioning)
2. Psychometric approach
• Assessment of abilities / aptitudes using quantitative scores
• Interpretation through normative data not taking into account previous history or
functioning
! A comprehensive Neuropsychological test is a combination of both these
approaches
NIMHANS NEUROPSYHOLOGICAL BATTERY
I. Tests of Attention
II. Tests of Executive Functions
III. Tests of Speed
IV. Test of Comprehension
V. Tests of Learning and Memory
I. Tests of Attention
1. Colour Trails Test
- Measures focused attention
- Colour Trails 1: The subject is asked to point to successive numbers in ascending
order from 1 – 25
- Colour Trails 2: The subject is asked to point to numbers in alternating colours (pink
and yellow) in ascending order from 1 – 25
- The time for both is noted down
- The subject generates words beginning with the letters F, A, S or Ka, Pa, Ma for one
minute each
2. Animal Names Test
- Measures category fluency
- The subject generates names of animals for one minute (excluding fish, birds and
snakes)
- Measures planning
- The subject is presented with a goal state of the arrangement of the 3 balls on one of
the boards (near the examiner)
- The arrangement of the balls in the other board is the initial state (near the subject)
- The subject has to arrive at the goal state with a minimum of 2, 3, 4 and 5 moves
- The mean time and the mean number of moves are noted
5. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
- Measures set shifting ability
- The 4 stimulus cards are placed in front of the subject
- The deck of 128 cards is arranged according to the sequence in the test manual
- The subject is instructed to study the cards and match each successive card from the
pack to one of the 4 stimulus cards
- The subject is told only whether each response is right or wrong and is never told the
correct sorting principle
- The subject has to guess the concept based on the examiner’s feedback and continue
with the test
6. Stroop Test
- Measures response inhibition
- The subject is asked to read the stimuli sheet (containing names of colours printed in
different colours) column-wise as soon as possible and the time is noted
- Then the subject is asked to name the colour in which the word is printed column-wise
and as soon as possible and the times is noted
- Stroop effect score = time taken to name the colour – Time taken to read the words
Other Tests
III. Tests of Speed
SUMMARY
• The psychological assessments seek to describe the ways in which people differ
• to understand how and why these arise
• there are a variety of tests and they are used widely
• founded upon an objective, scientific and empirical approach