Psychological Assessment Essay

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The History of Psychological Assessment
According to Jane Framingham “Psychological assessment is a process of testing that uses a combination of techniques to help arrive at some hypotheses about a person and their behavior, personality and capabilities.” (2011) It has evolved a lot over time though. There have been a lot of steps to get this assessment where it is today. Many new discoveries and many trials have happened over the course of time. Many people have contributed to the advance of psychological assessment. Different discoveries have been made about how the mind can work and what exactly it can reveal. It is never just one number or one test that defines a person. A series of tests are taken before any kind of hypothesis is made. One hypothesis of mental tests transformed into tests that are used around the world to discover your behavior. One hypothesis of intelligence transformed into ways to distinguish learning disabilities and standardized tests to get into college. The people in this essay fed off of one idea, they expanded their knowledge and improved on others ideas. Leaving their idea to be revised and improved for years to come.
According to Robert Gregory in the “History of Psychological Testing” many people believe the beginning of this testing began in Germany and Great Britain in the late 1800s. Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany. One of his first testing was his thought meter in 1862. His experiment had a pendulum with needles sticking out from the sides. The objective of the observer was to remember where the position of the pendulum was when the bell sounded. He believed that the actual position compared to the noted position of the pendulum by the obse...

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...ome with some revision to them). Many believe that these types of tests are unnecessary because of the technology that we have today. Technology like computers and monitors are being interpreted in newer psychological assessments a lot more in order to check heart rate and copy brain waves. Although, still to this day, a main part of being able to make a proper psychological diagnosis you have to go deeper than the scientific portion. The psychological assessments will continue to evolve. Theories will continue to be made. There is still so many things that are unknown about the mind and about the emotional and the areas that make people act the way that they do. Psychological Assessment is never based on just one test or one number, there is always a series of tests that are considered. Assessment may point out weaknesses but it also points outs one strength too.

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