Mental Health Consulting

Tag Archives: psychological testing

Psychological Assessments – from Confucius to Modern Times

If you are one of the many thousands of people who suffer from test anxiety here’s some good news.  Psychological tests are not the kind of tests you can fail. They are simply assessment tools used by psychologists to gain additional insight into who you are and how you function.

Assessments like these have been in use for decades. In early China, at the time of Confucius (551–479 BC), testing was done to gauge the proficiency and knowledge of those applying for advanced studies or official positions. This type of testing was called Imperial examination. It was in Europe during the 18^th and 19^th century that rather unscientific and unorthodox methods of personality specific assessments came into popularity. These were soon replaced, expanded upon, and standardized.

Why psychological assessments?

Most of us are familiar with an IQ test or a personality test, but there are many more psychological testing tools. Depending on the type of data collected from a test one of the primary reasons for obtaining the results is to establish a baseline for normalcy. As used here, normalcy is nothing more than a generalized comparison of the shared traits and behaviors we all have. When someone is tested and found to be outside the range of these normalcies there usually are problems that exist.

There are several other valid reasons for the use of psychological assessments, including the identification of both strengths and limitations that a client may face. There are tests used to measure for almost any form of issue, functioning, or mental health diagnosis. These can range from depression scales, bipolar scales, level of functioning, geriatric, children and many more scales. If a psychologist has a question about someone’s ability to function, he or she can usually find a test instrument to learn more.

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