Assessment and Appraisal of Individuals, Families, Couples, and Groups

Catalog description

Appraisal of Individuals, Couples, Families, and Groups examines the use, selection, administration, scoring and interpretation of standardized inventories/tests (e.g., personality inventories) related to the field of counseling. This course is designed to provide students with the experience of using various quantitative assessment tools related to treatment planning. By the end of this course, students will understand individual and group approaches to assessment and evaluation, including all the following: a. historical perspectives concerning the nature and meaning of assessment; b. basic concepts of standardized and non-standardized testing and other assessment techniques including norm referenced and criterion-referenced assessment, environmental assessment, performance assessment, individual and group test and inventory methods, behavioral observations, and computer-managed and computer-assisted methods; c. statistical concepts, including scales of measurement, measures of central tendency, indices of variability, shapes and types of distributions, and correlations; d. reliability (i.e., theory of measurement error, models of reliability, and the use of reliability information); e. validity (i.e., evidence of validity, types of validity, and the relationship between reliability and validity; f. age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, disability, culture, spirituality, and other factors related to the assessment and evaluation of individuals, groups, and specific populations; g. strategies for selecting, administering, and interpreting assessment and evaluation instruments and techniques in counseling; h. an understanding of general principles and methods of case conceptualization, assessment, and/or diagnoses of mental and emotional status; and i. ethical and legal considerations; j. presenting testing results both verbally and in written form in…