Assessment, Statistics, and Research

The chart based on data from CDC 2015 provides an example of tracking three trends over time. The bars indicate the percentage of births to unmarried women. The upper teal line represents the median age at first marriage and the orange broken line indicates median age at first birth. Notice the "crossover" of the two lines referring to first birth and first marriage. Note also the stabalized trend for births to unmarried women easily visible on the bar portion of the chart. About 40% of women are unmarried when their children are born. You can read text related to the story at the BGSU weblink:   https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/eickmeyer-payne-brown-manning-crossover-age-first-marriage-birth-fp-17-22.html Creating Surveys Available from  AMAZON Applied Statistics: Concepts for Counselors Available from  AMAZON Connect Geoffrey W. Sutton www.suttong.com Facebook Twitter @GeoffWSutton Y...

The Adult Hope Scale The Adult Hope Scale developed by C. R. Snyder of the University of Kansas is an easy to use measure of hope. The original scale has 12-items, which measure two dimensions of hope based on hope theory. Four measure agency and four measure pathways--the other four are distractors. The agency concept measures the capacity to focus energy on a goal. The pathways concept assesses plans to achieve goals. In recent studies, the four distraction items are often dropped leaving 8-items. Researchers often use the total score for the 8-items as a measure of trait (aka dispositional) hope. Find Snyder's The Psychology of Hope I have also included a Spanish language measure of hope in this post. Here's the text we (Sutton et al., 2018) used to refer to the scale along with our findings. The items used a response format of 1 =  definitely false  to 8 =  definitely true . A sample item is, “I meet the goals I set for myself.” Snyder et al. (1991)...

When counselors and psychologists report test scores, they often report one of the scores found in the table below. When several tests are used, it is helpful to know how the scores compare from one test to another. A good place to begin is to locate the average score-- that's the row where z = 0. Then look at the broad middle range between z = -1 and z = 1. About 68% of people score between z = -1 and z = 1. Intelligence Tests use Standard Scores abbreviated as SS. These scores take the place of the old IQ score. An average IQ is 100 -- about 68% of people score between 85 and 115. Here's a table from Appendix B of Applied Statistics: Concepts for Counselors Each row contains the equivalent score on a different scoring system. For example, a z -score of 1 equals a T score of 60, and a standard score of 115. The score is at the 84 th percentile. z T Standard Percentile Ra...

Intelligence tests (IQ tests) are in the news lately as people banter about terms from many decades ago. IQ tests are widely used because they measure the ability of people to solve various problems, predict academic achievement, and help with job placement in some settings. The tests also help neuropsychologists assess functioning in people with impairments due to head injuries and brain diseases. During part of my childhood, I passed a facility where American IQ testing began. I saw people on swings and on the grounds of the Vineland Training school in Vineland NJ. It turns out that a little over 100 years ago, American psychologist, Henry Goddard, brought a test by French scientist, Alfred Binet , to the New Jersey Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys in Vineland, NJ. The test was modified and widely used in the U.S. What tests are used today? Today, a number of tests are available in the US and elsewhere. Popular American tests are the Wechsler Intelligenc...

Can you answer these questions that every counselor ought to know? Choose the BEST available answer. I'll post the answers below. 1. If the correlation between a test of intelligence and a test of achievement is usually between .88 and .92, how well can you use the intelligence test results to predict achievement test results? A. Very well B. Moderately well C. Not well at all D. None of the above 2. A personality test score was high on a scale of Extraversion. The validity of the Extraversion scale was reported as .52 to .57 compared to similar tests. How much confidence should the person have that their score is "valid?" A. A high degree B. A moderate degree C. A low degree D. None of the above 3. School counselors administered a questionnaire to 1,000 students. They calculated results for answers about four school improvements rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Most of the scores were in the range of 18 to 20. The counselors reported a mean rating o...

What are age scores? Age scores, also called age-equivalent scores , are supposed to help people understand how a person’s test score compares to other people of the same age. They are often provided to teachers and parents to show how children scored on achievement tests compared to their age peers. A common age-equivalent abbreviation is AE .  Age scores are reported with a hyphen. The first number refers to age in years and the second number refers to the age in months. A score of 8-4 is supposed to mean a test performance typical of children age 8-years and 4-months. The scores appear convenient and make a kind of common sense. An age score of 7-6 is supposed to mean that a child earned a test score similar to children age 7-years and 6-months. But there are problems with the scores. What tests report age scores? Age scores are commonly reported with results of achievement tests. They are sometimes reported with results of intelligence tests. Old i...

The Theistic Spirituality Outcome Scale (TSOS) has potential as a useful outcome measure. Recently, a group of us completed a study of clients who saw Christian counselors. We assessed their current well-being using two measures: The Schwartz Outcome Scale (SOS) and the Theistic Outcome Scale (TSOS). (See references below.) The TSOS was designed by Richards (2005) as a measure of well-being for people associated with a theistic religion like Christianity, Judaism or Islam. We used the 17-item version, which uses a 5-point response format from  1 = never to 5 = almost always to rate each item (e.g., “I felt spiritually alive.”). Reliability We only calculated coefficient alpha, which was strong at .95. Validity The TSOS was significantly correlated with ratings of satisfaction with Christian counseling (.65) and likelihood of returning to Christian counseling (.62). It was significantly correlated with the SOS measure of general well-being (.84). Other signi...