Assessment remains a critical tool in the field of psychology. The American Psychological Association (APA) has developed a host of criteria meant to guide the assessments. The APA provides a standard rule that states that all their views and perspectives should be backed by findings drawn from the assessments. Also, the psychologists must remain keen to report all the limitations that come with the assessment. Psychological tests are the standardized measures used in the assessment of various psychological variables such as intelligence, personality, and emotional functioning among others. The article used in the discussion highlights a psychological tool known as childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ). Spinhoven et al., (2014) asserted that the CTQ is a self-report psychological measurement instrument that covers up to 28 items. It rates a host of factors that signify child maltreatment include neglect, emotional abuse, physical, and sexual abuse among others. With a keen interest in the study design presented in the article, the discussion will center on assessment technique, ethical violations, and the author's ability to address or remedy the issues.
Case Scenario
The subject of the article focuses on the use of CTQ as a measurement tool for childhood maltreatment. Childhood maltreatment has a direct implication on morbidity and mortality. The author goes ahead to says, "The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is one of the most commonly used scales to assess and quantify these experiences and their impact” (MacDonald et al., 2016). Childhood maltreatment, according to the authors, has far-reaching consequences on the physical and psychological impact of the victim. Some of the effects mentioned include the heightened stress responses, impaired psychological functioning, and a disrupted glucocorticoid signaling among others. It is in this regard that psychologists developed the CTQ that classifies childhood maltreatment into several categories including Emotional, Sexual and Physical Abuse (EA, SA, and PA), and Emotional and Physical Neglect (EN and PN) (MacDonald et al., 2016). The CTQ was developed primarily as a screening tool for children with a history of abuse and neglect. The CTQ has a wide range of treatment interventions including developing treatment plans, child custody investigations, and as an assessment took for the special populations.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Before delving into the actual case study represented in the article, it remains critical to assess the reliability and the validity of the CTQ. According to research, the CTQ comes with high internal consistency scores. In addition to its reliability, it is also known for its tendency to capture a host of psychological parameters such as temperament and stereotype awareness. The participants in the study were given the CTQ which composed of 28 times which an individual needed to provide responses to. The respondents had five options to give as responses including “never true,” “rarely true,” “sometimes true,” “often true,” and “very often true” (MacDonald et al., 2016). The respondents were given the questionnaires and required to respond based on the outlined answers. The participants were divided into two including the known patients for a host of psychological problems and the second group composed of the community members. The finding of the research showed that childhood maltreatment has a correlation with a host of mental disorders. The CTQ scores were important in predicting the status of the patients versus those of the community members.
In summary, patients with more childhood traumatic experiences were more likely to develop psychiatric issues. The CTQ played a vital role in determining a person’s exposure to prior childhood cases of maltreatment. The childhood trauma measured could predict a host of mental health issues such as mood disorders, psychiatric illness, psychotic illness, anxiety disorders, and dissociative disorders among others. The main result found it is that high CTQ outcomes were seen in patient populations while the lower ones were witnessed in the community groups.
How the Study Adheres To the APA Guidelines
First, it remains crucial to understand and appreciate the several considerations placed on the use of psychological measurement tools. According to the APA, tests and assessments are two related concepts that are essential in any psychological evaluation. Psychologists employ the tools to assist them in planning for a diagnostic or treatment plan. Kaplan & Saccuzzo, (2017) asserted that psychological testing and assessment comes with a host of ethical guidelines that every psychologist must remain mindful of. First, it should be noted that psychologists must use valid and reliable tools in a language that best meets the needs of the patients. Before the beginning of the process, informed consent should be sought by the clinician. The patient must understand the rationale of the assessment intervention and how well it will contribute to their treatment. For instance, in the study described in the article, the patients need to know how the CTQ can significantly improve their health by determining their predisposition to traumatic events in their childhood.
Before engaging in the 28 questions, it was incumbent upon the researchers to inform the patient and the community participants of the essence of the psychological measurement and how the outcomes would be of help to their overall health and outcome. Confidentiality and test security are also a fundamental aspect of any assessment tool. Most assessment tests require a direct response by the patient which are recorded and stored. Privacy provides that during the test, the patient should be placed in an environment where they can express themselves confidently without fear that their information might be accessed by other undeserving third parties (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2017). The APA further provides the much-needed guidelines for confidentiality. Here, the patient’s information is stored in accordance with the applicable laws and statutes. For instance, the most applicable law in this cause would be the Health Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which sets policies guiding the storage of information (Miller & Lovler, 2018).
Before the beginning of the test, each of the participants engaging in the CTQ was assured of their privacy and confidentiality. Each of the patient or community members received the questionnaire and answered them in a private room. However, anonymity was not encouraged because the aim of the study was to associate between maltreatment and the development of psychological problems among individuals in the different groups. Despite the lack of anonymity, confidentiality was kept in a bid to adhere to the ethical guidelines of the test. Another ethical responsibility of the psychologists in line with the APA guidelines is to ensure that they explain the test results to the participants of the test. Also, it is incumbent upon the psychologists to enhance security and integrity as regards the welfare of the test materials used. According to the APA, the psychologists must also understand and appreciate the psychological rationale underpinning the test. It is critical to appreciate the fact that each test comes with its rationale and the psychologists have a moral duty not only to understand but also explain it to the patients.
Several research studies have targeted the importance of CTQ in determining the psychological well-being of an individual. The article establishes the use of the CTQ as a tool for measuring the incidents of maltreatment based on five different set of responses given by the patients. Miller & Lovler, (2018) asserted that the theoretical background guiding the test is that exposure to different types of maltreatment in the childhood ultimately contributes to a wide array of mental disorders such as mood disorders, anxiety, and depression among others. Individuals who scored high on the CTQ are therefore either suffering from a mental illness or have a higher rate of predisposition compared to the general population. With this theoretical basis in mind, it is hence critical to gauge the CTQ and compare the outcomes among different populations as seen in the research study in the article. The researchers have complied with the APA guidelines that assert the importance of appreciating the rationale behind a given psychological assessment tool.
More significantly, psychologists must remain alive to the fact that the test used should meet the formal psychological assessment criteria. The APA has outlined three fundamental aspects to be considered in order to label a test as meeting the required formal psychological assessment criteria. First, it should have clear directions as regards administration and scoring. It should further provide a definitive evaluation of the properties of the scores obtained from the test. Validity and reliability form the second criterion. It should define the sub-populations based on demographic factors such as socioeconomic status, language background, ethnicity, and gender among others (Miller & Lovler, 2018). Thirdly, the test should allow for easy interpretation of the data in relation to the applicable study population. The CTQ model tends to meet all three standards because it has a clear explanation that guides administration and test scoring. It guarantees a sense of validity and reliability as seen in its ability to establish a cause-effect relationship between the traumatic scores and the development of psychological disorders. Lastly, it offers an opportunity to interpret data and make clinical decisions in an individual.
Imperfections in the Article
The article goes ahead to highlight three limitations that come with the study. The use of a large sample of participants was regarded as a strength. However, with the incorporation of different multilingual and multinational samples, it was difficult to evade bias in the results shown. The cultural and language differences demonstrated in the questionnaires could have significant implications on the outcome of the study. As previously indicated, the study had two samples including the patients and the community members. However, the limitation here was the fact that the community population did not receive any screening for a psychiatric disorder. The author says, "Although the patient versus community criterion variable is meaningful in itself, it is not a pure indicator of psychiatric illness due to criterion-group contamination” (MacDonald et al., 2016). Lack of knowledge regarding the community members’ psychiatric conditions was an indictment on the use of this measurement criterion. In doing so, the psychologists ignored the importance of validity and reliability of the assessment tool the two important aspects can only be achieved once the appropriate population is picked for the study.
Another significant flaw demonstrated in the course of the study was the failure by the psychologists to take into consideration the critical role of diversity in the assessment procedure. According to the APA, psychologists can undertake an assessment in diverse environments and must remain aware of the language and cultural requirements of the participants. Such awareness can significantly impact a psychologist's choice of an assessment tool, interpretation of outcomes, compilation of reports, and lastly, communication to clients and third parties. However, from the research, the participants are regarded as a homogenous body of individuals consisting of people with the same cultural and linguistic demands. This can have significant effects on the outcome of the research especially when the assessment tool is not tailored to the cultural or linguistic demands of the people. From the study presented in the article, the only language used in the CTQ is English. It, therefore, means that any participant outside the English-speaking cultural dispensation will not have the opportunity to answer the questions in the best of their knowledge.
Several strategies could be taken to ensure that these imperfections are remedied and the validity and reliability of the assessment tool remain uncompromised. The study should use a small sample that can be managed based on ethical and scientific demands. As such, this limits any occurrences of bias in the outcome. It should be noted that the larger the sample, the higher the chances of bias in the results. This is regarded as unethical practices because it negatives from the principles of accuracy and reliability outlined by the APA. The second remedy should be center on the proper evaluation of the study participants to ensure that they are best qualified to engage in the assessment. Therefore, the participants from the community should have been tested to evaluate their psychological condition as a way of asserting the validity of the test material. Lastly, psychologists need to offer more options as regards the language and cultural demands to enhance accuracy, and further take care of the needs of both the majority and minority participants.
Position
On an overall scale, the use of the CTQ in the study above was largely successful when assessed within the APA's ethical realms. The study maintained privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent. The tool used for assessment also met all the validity and reliability of ethical considerations. However, the assessment had several procedural flaws that could have had significant implications on the outcome of the study. The use of large populations affected accuracy by incorporating bias. The failure to test the community population and most importantly, a lack of lingual and cultural aspects could have affected the outcome of the research.
References
Kaplan, R. M., & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2017). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, and issues. Nelson Education.
MacDonald, K., Thomas, M. L., Sciolla, A. F., Schneider, B., Pappas, K., Bleijenberg, G. ... & Dannlowski, U. (2016). Minimization of childhood maltreatment is common and consequential: results from a large, multinational sample using the childhood trauma questionnaire. PLoS One, 11(1), e0146058.
Miller, L. A., & Lovler, R. L. (2018). Foundations of psychological testing: A practical approach. Sage Publications.
Spinhoven, P., Penninx, B. W., Hickendorff, M., van Hemert, A. M., Bernstein, D. P., & Elzinga, B. M. (2014). Childhood Trauma Questionnaire: Factor structure, measurement invariance, and validity across emotional disorders. Psychological assessment, 26(3), 717.
