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Testing and Assessment in Counseling: Types & Uses

Why do counselors test their clients? What kind of assessments are out there? This lesson looks into
these and other issues of testing and assessment.

Testing

In one of my classes as a graduate student, a professor made an interesting remark that

has always stuck with me. Psychology is one part art and one part science. Some people
are good at the art, which is therapy and working with people in an active and therapeutic
way. Some people are good at science, which is research, testing, and breaking things
down and examining their components. Few people truly excel at both, despite needing
both to be an effective counselor.
The science of counseling has two main components: research and testing. We are going
to focus on testing, which is defined as collecting information to analyze and evaluate a
client to identify problems, plan for treatment, and aid in diagnosing. Testing is a
specialized form of psychology that involves examining a person's responses and
quantifying or describing their meaning. How different tests do this will be explored
briefly later. I may use the term assessment, because testing and assessment are fairly
interchangeable in psychology.
Testing can be done prior to, during, or following counseling. Testing a client prior to the
start of counseling gives you an idea of who the person is walking through the doors.
Testing during counseling can help identify additional areas in which to focus or could
provide additional information that the counselor needs. Lastly, following counseling, a
client may undergo testing to see if any changes have been made.

Training

Specific training is required to administer, score, and interpret these tests. Assessments
are not like typical tests that you took in high school and got a grade on. These tests are
designed to peer deep into your psyche.

First, you will need a good foundation in psychology and counseling. If I say a client has an
enhanced blarga-blargh, you need to know that I am full of lies. With a foundation, you
can begin to understand what the tests are telling you.

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Second, you need training in statistics. Most tests will present you with numerical
representations of information. For example, items like mean, standard deviation, and
frequency are not uncommon. Even things like IQ require that you have an understanding
of how statistics work.
Third, you need training in the specific test. It is not sufficient to purchase a test and then
to use it. Assessments can be insanely specific in the words you use, the position of the
seats, and the timing. And that is just the specifics for giving an assessment; we haven't
even gone over the specifics for scoring and interpreting the tests. Assessors need to be
trained to use the tests so they don't mess it up.

Tests

Assessments come in several varieties, and sometimes they are difficult to differentiate
because they can blend variations. That being said, we can narrow most psychological
tests down to three categories. To make things easier, let's say our client is represented
by a person riding a bike to illustrate some of these tests.

The first test we call functioning. These tests assess what the client's abilities are, usually
in comparison to others. Some examples of these include IQ tests, academic tests, and
aptitude tests. These type of tests could be said to answer the following question: What
level is this person functioning at? Are they reading at grade level? Are they intelligent
enough to handle advanced counseling, or should they only have lower, behavioral
counseling? Many other questions could be answered, but they all focus on how high the
functioning level of the client is. Our bike analogy works the same way: how fast is the
bike going? How fast can it go? What is breaking down?

The second test we will call personality. These tests assess the client's beliefs, traits, and
qualities. Some examples include the Myers-Briggs, the MMPI-2, and various others.
Before you get too excited, these tend to be a little higher than the ones you find online,
with hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of work put into development and writing. The
questions these types of assessments answer is, Who is this person? Are they excitable or
calm? Do they have qualities that make them prone to stress? In our bike analogy, this
type of assessment looks into the makeup of the bike. How big are the tires? How many
gears? It tells you what the bike consists of.

where there are nails to flatten our tires, then there will still be nails.

Limits

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The third type of test we will call behavioral. These tests assess and record observable
actions or assess the effects of previous actions. This is the type that many risk
assessments fall under since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Risk
can be for things like committing crimes, suicide, or depression. This type of assessment
asks, What has happened before that will likely happen again? Is this person struggling
with impulse control? Have they responded to treatment? In our bike analogy, if we had
problems with the chain before, we will likely to have them in the future. If we ride places

Testing can provide a great deal of information if used and administered correctly.
However, tests are insufficient on their own. Assuming they are used properly, they can
help confirm a client has a particular issue, personality quality, or other aspect. The test
still requires the assessor interview and understand the client because the tests are
insufficient to diagnose or make grand assumptions from. The tests are supplemental and
descriptive, not decisive.
Tests used or administered incorrectly are extremely damaging. Using tests blindly and

without rhyme or reason is like shooting into the dark. You may hit something, but it likely
isn't what you meant to. Also, using tests because you have them and are familiar with
them is an insufficient reason to use one. It is an unfortunate tendency of some assessors
to use the same tests over and over, but this habit will make you miss important
information because the testing needs to be tailored to the individual. When tests are
used incorrectly, they begin to cloud the counseling process and lead to actual problems
not being managed.

Lesson Summary

Testing is defined as collecting information to analyze and evaluate a client to identify

problems, plan for treatment, and aid in diagnosing. Assessing a person requires training
in areas of psychology, statistics, and the specific test to ensure it is administered, scored,
and interpreted correctly. Tests can be used incorrectly, which can lead to erroneous and
harmful conclusions. However, when tests are used correctly, they can provide a wealth of
information.
The different tests can be broken down into three types:

Functioning: defined as tests that assess what the client's abilities are, usually in comparison to
others

 Personality: defined as tests that assess the client's beliefs, traits, and qualities

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Behavioral : defined as tests that assess and record observable actions or assess the effects of
previous actions