Division 2: Psychological Assessment and Evaluation

Presidential Address:

OAKLAND Thomas (USA)
International status of test development and use with children and youth
Test development and use constitute psychology’s most important contribution to applied psychology. The results of a recently completed 75-country survey of test development and use with children and youth are summarized. The major proposes of test use and most popular tests are identified. Issues are discussed in reference to technical and professional standards for test development and use.

Keynote lecturers :

ALGHORANI Mohammad Adnan (United Arab Emirate)
Challenges to psychological testing in Gulf Coast Countries
Psychologists working in Gulf Coast countries generally work either without sufficient psychological tests or with improper psychological tests. The major challenges encountered by psychologists working in this region in reference to their use of psychological tests are outlined. Possible remedies for these challenges also are suggested.

BARTRAM Dave
Implications of personality differences between countries
Implications of personality differences between countries together with evidence on country level differences in personality from earlier research and recent large data sets are reviewed. Implications of differences are discussed in the light of their relationships with a range of other country level metrics. Implications for multinational assessments also are discussed.  

CHEUNG Fanny M. (Hong Kong)
Assessment of well-being: global and local perspectives
Psychological measures of well-being have focused on self-related concepts. In collectivistic cultures, the role of relational concepts should not be ignored. This address discusses some relational concepts. The implications for cross-cultural testing and assessment are discussed.

GEISINGER Kurt F. (USA)
Evaluating tests:  a continuing effort for psychologists
Testing has had a long history in psychology. The evaluation of testing is needed and is expanding from the United States and Western Europe to other parts of the world. The importance of such evaluations is described together with the most common criteria against which tests are evaluated. Similarities and differences across the well-developed approaches to test evaluations are clarified.

ILIESCU Dragos (Romania)
Test adaptations: beyond translations
Test developers and users in emerging countries uniformly agree that tests should reflect current psychometric standards and should be more than mere translations of existing test. However, in most emerging countries, practitioners must rely principally on translated tests, namely those that reflect careful language translations and occasional analyses of internal validity. Empirical methods consistent with current psychometric standards are used rarely with them. This address summarizes best practice associated with test adaptation, including whether to adapt a test as well as methods to promote translation design, insure item and construct adequacy, promote test format equivalence, and to generate empirical support in test adaptation efforts.  

LUBINSKI David (USA)
Critical questions in talent development: Answered through 40-Years of longitudinal research by study of mathematically precocious youth
Who among intellectually talented young adolescents become eminent and creative adults can be answered. This presentation will identify the influence of educational interventions during adolescence, promote an understanding of what happens to the mathematically talent women, and how they structure their lifestyles. These and other compelling questions on talent development are addressed using longitudinal data collected over four decades on 5,000 U.S. participants within the top 1% in ability.