Learning Objective: Demonstrate ethical and legal competence in psychological assessment
1. Ethical competence is the ability to practice assessment well, measured against a standard published by professional groups such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Developing a clearly defined professional relationship means that the nature, purpose, and conditions of the relationship between the clinician and client are discussed, and agreed on. Issues related to informed consent are concern over the invasion of privacy and tests discovering hidden information, and how the information is used. Many consent forms aren’t written in clear, straightforward language that can be understood by the client, and unforeseen events not covered in the form may occur. Labeling individuals with psychiatric diagnoses imposed by others can have negative consequences such as restriction of freedom. Competent use of assessment instruments includes proper training in administering and interpreting psychological tests, …show more content…
Assessing diverse groups in an essential part of professional practice, highlighted by the American Psychological Association requiring professional psychologists be trained in this area. Language skills are a first step in assessing diverse groups, it may be advisable to conduct the assessment and/or use assessment instruments in the client’s native language. Cultural competency on the part of clinicians begins with self-exploration and knowledge of a culture, then developing optimal strategies of service etiquette. Cultural/racial identity is important to understand when conducting individual assessments and careful consideration of whether standard tests are appropriate to use with them is required. At the core of appropriate use of instruments is evaluating the test equivalence according to linguistic, conceptual, and metric equivalence. These considerations include wording and content, the construct has same meaning, and same psychometric