PSYC 636: Child Personality Assessment
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in psychology; a 鈥淏鈥� or better in a course of individual intelligence testing, a graduate course in psychopathology (may be taken concurrently), or permission of the instructor.
Credit Hours: (3)
Intended for school and clinical psychology graduate students. The course includes supervised administration, scoring and interpretation of individual projective and objective personality tests; and supervised interviewing experience with children and parents. Students administer, score and interpret several personality tests and are expected to achieve proficiency in writing comprehensive psychological reports.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
1. History of Personality Assessment
2. Concepts and Definitions
3. Projective Approaches, Draw-a-person, Kinetic Family Drawing, etc.
4. Empirical Approaches (Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist, Personality Inventory
for Children, Bender-Gestalt, etc.)
5. Psychological Report Writing
6. Behavioral and Psychosituational Assessment
7. Interviewing Techniques
8. Psychometric considerations: Reliability, Validity, Norms, Standardization
9. Assessment Technology: Clinical vs. Actuarial Prediction, Base Rates, Factors Affecting
Clinical Accuracy, Process of Clinical Judgment, Etc.
10. Criticisms: Improper Usage, Ethical and Legal Concerns
11. Multicultural Considerations
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
The course involves didactic instruction and supervised experience. A class discussion format is also used.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
1. To learn the basic theory of personality assessment
2. Students are expected to be able to administer, score, interpret and report the
widely used psychological assessment instruments.
3. To develop skills in applied personality assessment with children.
Assessment Measures
Graded assignments include in-class tests, psychological test administration and reports, a final examination, and class preparation and participation.
Other Course Information
None
Review and Approval
March 1999 Revised