PSYCHODIAGNOSTICS I (PSY 432)

 

 
Instructor:  W. Joel Schneider
Office:  De Garmo 447
Phone:  (309) 438-8410
E-mail:  wjschne@ilstu.edu
Office hours:  Tuesdays 2-3pm, Wednesdays 11am-12 noon, or by appointment 

 

NASP Standards addressed:

STANDARD 1:  Data-Based Decision Making & Accountability

STANDARD 2:  Consultation & Collaboration

STANDARD 3:  Learning & Instruction

STANDARD 4:  Socialization & Development of Life Skills

STANDARD 5:  Student Diversity In Development & Learning

STANDARD 6:  School & Systems Organization, Policy Development, & Climate

STANDARD 11:  Technology

 

Course Topics:

  1. Theories of intelligence
  2. Theories and statistics of measurement
  3. Multi-cultural & ESL issues in assessment
  4. Assessment of Severe & Profound/Low incidence students
  5. Administration, scoring, and interpretation of the WISC-IV, WJ-III Cognitive, SB5, KABC-II, & CAS, as well as exposure to other tests.
  6. Obtaining data from interviews, record review, learning environments, and observations
  7. Ethical/legal issues regarding cognitive assessment
  8. Writing cognitive assessment reports
  9. Developing an assessment plan based on referral
  10. Making treatment recommendations based on data
  11. Integrating data from multiple sources
  12. Collaborative problem-solving with other professionals
  13. Special education process and paperwork
  14. Future directions in assessment

 

Required Materials:

 

At least 4 blank video tapes and a stopwatch

 

Books

 

Flanagan, D.P. & Harrison P.L. (2005). Contemporary Intellectual Assessment, Second Edition : Theories, Tests, and Issues. Guilford Press.

Articles

Cronbach L.J. & Meehl, P.E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests, Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281-302.

Gottfredson, L. (1997). “Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life,” Intelligence, 24, 79-132.

Grove, W.M. & Meehl, P.E. (1996). Comparative Efficiency of Informal (Subjective, Impressionistic) and Formal (Mechanical, Algorithmic) Prediction Procedures: The Clinical–Statistical Controversy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2,  293-323.

Elwood, R.W. (1993). Psychological tests and clinical discriminations: Beginning to address the base rate problem, Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 409-410.

Note: All articles can be downloaded for free through ISU’s Milner Library. There are many ways to get to the articles. One way is to look them up on PsycInfo and then click the Find button. Downloading the .pdf files when possible is preferred because it preserves the original formatting and figures.

 

Evaluation:

 

Class Participation

 

You are expected to attend every lecture. You must make arrangements to make up for any excused absences. You are expected to practice assessment skills in role-playing exercises. If necessary, you are expected to consult with me to overcome any obstacles such as shyness and performance anxiety that might prevent you from participating fully.

 

Readings

 

All university courses should be challenging and exciting. Class discussions should be relevant, spirited, and intellectually serious. At the graduate level, much of the responsibility for making the class discussions lively and interesting shifts from the instructor to the participants. For graduate students, the expectations for academic rigor during discussions are also higher than they are for undergraduates. For example, graduate students are expected to base their arguments on theory and empirical data rather than solely on intuition and personal experience. Unfortunately, many students cannot engage in informed discussions very often because they have not completed their assigned readings. The following policies and procedures were developed to promote an atmosphere of intellectual rigor, competence, and enthusiasm in the course:

 

Throughout the course you will be assigned readings. You are expected to have the assignments completed prior to the class period.

 

Reading Logs

As they occur to you as you read, keep a record of your thoughts, insights, goals and resolutions. Your Reading Log can be handwritten or typed. It can consist of well-written prose, short-hand notes, Haiku poetry, or stream of consciousness for all I care: I will not be reading the details of your Reading Log. However, I expect you to bring it to class so that you can use it in class discussions. I may ask to you show it to me so that I can verify that it is being completed. Your Reading logs need not be long or detailed. You are encouraged not to spend excessive amounts of time on them.

 

Class Discussion of Readings

In each class period, the assigned readings will be discussed and the instructor will present new material.  The intent of these discussions is to integrate new concepts with your current understanding. You are expected to come prepared to:

  1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the main ideas of each chapter. Talk about what you liked and disliked (or agreed with or disagreed with) in each chapter.
  2. Discuss a few ideas from your Reading Log. In particular discuss how the readings apply to your understanding of people you have encountered personally or professionally. Please note that you should not feel obligated to reveal highly personal information of a sensitive nature in class discussions.

During discussion, you are encouraged to use the readings and your notes but you must be able to make your points succinctly and without excessive delay. If, for whatever reason, you have not completed the reading, you are expected to say so when called upon. Please note that excessive memorization of the readings is not necessary to answer the types of questions that are likely to be asked. I simply wish to ensure that you grasp the main ideas and have thought about the topics with sufficient depth.

Quizzes


A professional has to be able to distinguish between information that must be mastered and committed to memory and information that, while perhaps interesting, can be looked up again when needed. From time to time, I will notify you in class or by email which aspects of previous lectures and readings you are expected to remember without the aid of your notes. At any time during the semester, I will ask you to demonstrate your knowledge in a quiz. To prevent unnecessary anxiety, the the types of information you will need to know will be given to you in advance.

 

After you have been notified that I expect you to know something, you can be quizzed on it at any time.

 

Test Administration & Scoring

1.      Practice administrations with peers: You will be assigned different partners with whom to practice administering various tests. It is important to keep in mind that you are not evaluating each other’s cognitive abilities. Thus, when being given a test, you are encouraged to pretend to be a well-behaved child or low-functioning adult, depending on the test (i.e., do not try to get all the questions correct). You are also encouraged to give your partner relatively easy answers to score. Be courteous, professional and reliable in all your dealings with your assigned partners. You are required to practice giving 1 full protocol of each of the following tests: WISC-IV, WJ-III cognitive, SB5, DAS-II, and the KABC-II. Completing these 5 practice administrations will require a large time commitment. Do not procrastinate. You should score all practice protocols and submit them to be graded. You will be required to re-administer or re-score any subtests with gross errors. All tests will be graded on a pass/fail basis.You must receive a passing grade (>80 points) on all 5 tests in order to pass the course.


2.  Live administration of the WISC-IV with the GA's.  You must give a perfect admininstration of each subtest in a role play with the GA's. Once a subtest has been passed, it does not need to be repeated.

3.      Videotaped administration a with real child: Via videotaped administration, you will demonstrate competency in the administration of the WISC-IV, WAIS-III, or WPSSI-III (i.e., pick one that fits your specialization preferences).  If you do not display mastery on the administrations, you will be required to resubmit another videotaped administration.  You are strongly encouraged to view and critique your videotaped performance before turning it in to be evaluated. Detailed checklists are available to guide your critique.  If you catch your own mistakes, you will only lose half as much credit. You will complete a protocol for each of these administrations.  The protocols will be graded by the GAs.  Each protocol will be evaluated for the accuracy of scoring judgments as well as clerical calculations.  Errors on any of the following will result in deduction of points:

Standard procedures followed (basal & ceilings, discontinuations, etc.)

Responses recorded verbatim and scored accurately

Front page of protocol complete & accurate clerically

Calculations, transfer of scores, and tables read correctly

Scoring judgments match standards and criteria in manual

 

Each minor error will be worth 1 to 4 points

Each major error will be worth 5 to 20 points

You must pass at least 2 administrations with 90 points or more. It usually takes people 4 to 6 attempts so plan ahead.

 

It is your responsibility to find participants for your administrations. 

You will not be sharing official test results with the volunteers you test unless granted permission from the instructor (do not offer feedback as an incentive for volunteering).


You may not rewind videotapes to correct any mistakes on videotapes.



Note on administrations: For the practice administrations, live administrations, and the videotaped administrations, you must meet with the instructor if you fail to pass an assignment twice in a row. No assignment may be submitted more than 6 times. Failure to pass after the 6th attempt will result in having to repeat the course.

Test Interpretation and Report Writing

1.      Teams of 3-4 students will be given a hypothetical case history of a person referred to you. You must decide which tests you would give to answer the referral questions. You will email your initial list of tests that you would give. I will send back some hypothetical scores. You will then email me back which tests you would give, if any, to follow up on any new questions you might want to answer. We will exchange back and forth until you believe that you have a good case conceptualization. You will submit a brief (1 page or less) conceptualization. After the conceptualization is deemed satisfactory, you will make an appointment for a 2-hour meeting with me to write up the report together. The team will present the report in class for discussion. This assignment will be graded on a pass/fail basis.

2.      Individually, you will be given 2 more hypothetical cases. We will email tests and scores back and forth as described above until you believe that you can write up the report (to be completed independently). The reports will be graded on the soundness of your reasoning and the quality (clarity, grammar, etc.) of your writing.

 

 

Grading Procedure

All pass/fail assignments must be passed to receive a grade in the course. With instructor permission, failed assignments may be attempted a second time.

 

5 Practice Assessments Pass/Fail (Must pass all with > 80 points to pass the course)
GA Assessment            Pass/Fail (Must pass with >90 points to pass the course)

Taped Assessment        Pass/Fail (Must pass with >90 points to pass the course)

Class discussion           100 points

Quizzes                        200 points

Team Report                100 points

Individual Report 1       200 points

Individual Report 2       200 points

Final Exam                   200 points

Total                            1000 points

 

GRADING SCALE

            A         900-1000

B         800-899

            C         700-799

            D         600-699

            F          0-599

 

Special Accommodations: Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TTY).

 

Academic Integrity: Plagiarizing and cheating on exams and other assignments are not tolerated. Any student exhibiting academic dishonesty will receive an F in the course and will be referred for disciplinary action.

 

Communication: The best way to reach me is by email or in person, before or after class. I do not check my office telephone messages nearly as often as I check my email. I may, from time to time, email you about various matters.

 

Additional information:

 


TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

8/17     Introduction         
8/19     Discuss  Cronbach & Meehl (1955) Construct validity in psychological tests
8/24      Discuss Grove & Meehl (1996)  Comparative Efficiency of Informal (Subjective, Impressionistic) and Formal (Mechanical, Algorithmic) Prediction Procedures: The Clinical–Statistical Controversy
   
CIA Ch. 1 A History of Intelligence Assessment

CIA Ch. 2 A History of Intelligence Test Interpretation
8/26    Discuss Goffredson (1997) Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life
  Elwood (1993) Psychological tests and clinical discriminations: Beginning to address the base rate problem
8/31    Discuss     CIA Ch. 14 The Wechsler Scales
9/2     Discuss WISC-IV Manual
  CIA Ch. 3 Foundations for Better Understanding of Cognitive Abilities
9/7     No Class

9/9     Discuss             CIA Ch. 4 The Three-Stratum Theory of Cognitive Abilities
  CIA Ch. 8 The Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory of Cognitive Abilities: Past, Present, and Future
9/14     Discuss CIA Ch. 9 The Impact of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory on Test Development and Interpretation of Cognitive and Academic Abilities
9/16     Discuss CIA Ch. 12 Issues in Subtest Profile Analysis


1st Practice Administration Due (Must be WISC-IV)
Begin scheduling live administrations with GA's
9/21     Discuss CIA Ch. 17 The Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability
9/23     Discuss CIA Ch. 15 Interpreting the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition
9/28     Discuss CIA Ch. 16 The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children--Second Edition and the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test

CIA Ch. 18
 The Differential Abilities Scales
9/30    Discuss CIA Ch. 13 Linking Cognitive Assessment Results to Academic Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities
10/5    Discuss CIA Ch. 24 Psychoeducational Assessment and Learning Disability Diagnosis
10/7    Discuss CIA Ch. 25 The Use of Intelligence Tests with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations


First Videotaped Administration Attempt Due
10/12   Discuss CIA Ch. 11 Advances in Cognitive Assessment of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Individuals: A Nondiscriminatory Interpretive Approach
10/14   Discuss CIA Ch. 23 Use of Intelligence Tests in the Identification of Giftedness


2nd Practice Administration Due (WJ-III, SB5, DAS-II, or KABC-II)
10/19   Discuss CIA Ch. 7 Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive Theory: A Revision of the Concept of Intelligence
10/21   Discuss  CIA Ch. 20
 The Cognitive Assessment System


3rd Practice Administration Due (WJ-III, SB5, DAS-II, or KABC-II)
10/26   Discuss  CIA Ch. 10
 Information-Processing Approaches to Interpretation of Contemporary Intellectual Assessment Instruments


Team Reports Due
10/28   Discuss    Assessment of Memory, Attention, and Executive Functions (Readings TBA)


4th Practice Administration Due (WJ-III, SB5, DAS-II, or KABC-II)
11/2     Discuss      Assessment of Memory, Attention, and Executive Functions (Readings TBA)
11/4     Discuss    Assessment of Memory, Attention, and Executive Functions (Readings TBA)


5th Practice Administration Due (WJ-III, SB5, DAS-II, or KABC-II)
11/9   Discuss    Personality and Intelligence (Readings TBA)
11/11   Discuss    Personality and Intelligence (Readings TBA)


1st Individual Report Due
11/16   Discuss  CIA Ch. 22 Use of Intelligence Tests in the Assessment of Preschoolers
11/18   Discuss CIA Ch. 10 Information-Processing Approaches to Interpretation
11/30     Discuss    CIA Ch. 6 The Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence, Robert J. Sternberg
12/2     Discuss CIA Ch. 5 Assessment Based on Multiple-Intelligences Theory, Jie-Qi Chen and Howard Gardner


2nd Individual Report Due

12/11   Final Exam on Friday at 7:50AM