NCJ Number
186242
Journal
Journal of Personality Assessment Volume: 70 Issue: 1 Dated: 1998 Pages: 43-53
Date Published
1998
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This discussion of psychological evaluation of black individuals focuses on the dilemmas of whether to create race-specific norms for existing assessment instruments and whether the existing instruments measure the correct attributes, given cultural differences.
Abstract
The normative population for the large number of tests available to complete psychological assessments for education institutions, employers, and social and mental health professionals consists mainly of white Americans. The use of these tests continues despite legal challenges to the use of psychological and educational tests on ethnic minorities. Issues surrounding the inappropriateness of those test results remain unresolved. However, Africentric constructs are inherently different from the attitudes that existing instruments measure. Among the eight aspects of culture that any acculturation scale should include are traditional African American religious beliefs and practices and interracial attitudes. Assessing racial socialization includes analysis of the perception of education, awareness of racism in society, appreciation of spirituality and religion, and three other domains. However, the term culturally competent assessment cannot be considered valid until a sufficient number of practitioners are capable of performing such assessments as a matter of practice. In addition, all clinicians must be able to understand, administer, score, and interpret the Africentric constructs developed by African American psychologists. Finally, the Association of Black Psychologists and the American Psychological Association should appoint a joint task force to design strategies for cross-cultural training and development of a comprehensive set of tests for ethnic minorities. 31 references