Ethics Testing
The Ethical Parameters of Psychological Assessment Instruments
One of the greatest challenges in conducting psychological assessment with proper scientific integrity is the reality that perceptions of normalcy and disorder may well vary according to such features as culture, personal background and individual perceptions. This constitutes an ethical challenge with respect to the design of psychological assessment instruments, which might be construed as inherently biased. A useful example is the MMPI-2 test which has been challenged with respect to reliability.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, "a test designed to expose fakers is roiling the field of personal-injury law, distressing plaintiffs and strengthening the hand of employers and insurers." (Armstrong, 1) This would be particularly true because the text had been designed by an attorney with a close connection to the field of insurance defense, meaning that courts had come to rely on an instrument for legal assessment which had clearly been designed to hold the plaintiff at disadvantage.
This leads to consideration of other inherent shortcomings in the ethicality of the MMPI instrument as a way to make legal determinations. In many instances, the structure of the test can be said to have an alienating impact on respondents as well. To the point, research by Butcher & Hostetler (1990) denotes that "some past objection to the MMPI's length came in part from the frustration that some patients may have felt about the item redundancy (16 items were repeated) or the perceived irrelevant item content." (Butcher & Hostetler, 16) These perceptions may also have contributed to negative performance indices, suggesting that there is an essential need for refinement of such personality testing methods to ensure their universality to the needs of all competent respondents.
Works Cited:
Amstrong, D. (2008). Malingerer Test Roils Personal-Injury Law. The Wall Street Journal.
Butcher, J.N. & Hostetler, K. (1990). Abbreviating MMPI Item Adminstration. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2(1). 12-21.
Butcher, J.N. et al. (2006). Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolscent. Pearson. Online at http://psychcorp.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=PAg522
