Interpreting raw psychological data should be done only by experienced mental health professionals.
Only a licensed mental health professional with competency in psychological testing should interpret raw psychological test results. If you go to see a counselor and he administers tests, he will give you a written summary of the test results and will interpret these with you. When you read the report, however, there are some tips that can help you to interpret what the mental health professional is saying and what questions to ask.
Instructions
Type of Tests
1. Consider the type of test being interpreted. Understanding results depends on the kind of test. Different test types include achievement, intelligence, personality and clinical. The type of test given must be geared toward the questions being asked. The mental health professional shoudl not, for instance, give you an intelligence (IQ) test if intelligence is not what he is evaluating. You should ask the mental health professional questions like, "What are the questions he is trying to answer with the evaluation? Why did he selected the various tests administered?"
2. If you are faking, an experienced mental health practitioner will know.
Ask about the test validity. All well-constructed psychological tests have validity scales: questions that asses the test taker's approach to the testing, comprehension of the test items and truth telling. This is important to keep in mind when you are taking the test. If you are trying to "fake good" or "fake bad," an experienced mental health professional will know it and you will only look worse.
3. Ask about the standard error of measurement. For example, intelligence and achievement tests never calculate just one score. Most intelligence tests, for example, have a 15-point standard error of measure. A score of 100 is considered "average," but this score actually indicates that your potential is to score between 85 and 115 depending on the day you took the test, what your mood was, the stress you were under and other factors. Interpretation of intelligence or achievement testing should not just contain your raw score interval but the category into which that score falls. The results should say something like, "Jane scored within the average range on the WISC-III."
4. Identify areas of strengths and weakness in intelligence or aptitude test results. In the example above, Jane's test results should not just say she functions within the average range of intelligence, they should also say something like, "with relative strengths in abstract relationships and personal strengths in memory span." The term "relative strength" refers to a strength in relationship to everyone who took the test (the normative group). The term "personal strength" means that for Jane, it was one of the highest scores, but it was not one of the highest scores when compared to the normative group.
5. Ask about recommendations based on test results. This is called the "so what" factor. Getting recommendations is especially important for neuropsychological tests. It does not help to find out that you are a "nonverbal learner" with "auditory processing problems" if you have no idea what to do about this.
Tags: mental health, health professional, mental health professional, test results, experienced mental
