52 research outputs found
Title and Contents- Family Assessment
No full textFamily Assessment
Content
Preface
SECTION ONE: Family Assessment: History, Theory, and Applications
Measurement Beyond the Individual Charles F. Halverson
Families as the Focus of Assessment: Theoretical and Practical Issues Cindy I. Carlson
SECTION TWO: Investigation of Critical Elements of Family Dynamics
Assessing Family Health and Distress: An Intergenerational-Systemic Perspective James H. Bray
Multicultural Family Assessment Jane Close Conoley and Lorrie E. Bryant
Sibling Relationships Michelle C. Schicke
Assessing Marital Quality in Longitudinal and Life Course Studies David R. Johnson
SECTION THREE: Assessment of Special Challenges Faced by Families
Issues in Measuring the Effects of Divorce on Children Paul R. Amato
Family Assessment in Behavioral Parent Training for Antisocial Behavior Elaine Buterick Werth
Assessment Issues in Families of Individuals with Disabilities Marjorie A. Padula
Epilogue
Author Index
Subject Index
Test Inde
Preface- Family Assessment
No full textAssessing families suggests both interesting measurement issues and significant clinical applications. This volume is a collection of important papers to explore the topic in some depth.
Some of these papers were first given at the Buros-Nebraska Symposium on Testing and Measurement. Others have been written especially for this volume. All are outstanding examples of scholarship in this very thorny area of psychological measurement beyond the individual. We commissioned papers that examined the history of measurement with families and to cover family issues that are of particular interest to both clinicians and researchers.
The book is divided in three sections. Drs. Halverson and Carlson introduce our topics in two important chapters. Halverson provides readers with a discussion of quantitative measurement of the family from multiple perspectives. He provides a brief, but comprehensive, overview of the history of family assessment by exploring the development of techniques and instruments used for measuring various aspects of the family and interactions within the family system. Dr. Halverson identifies the major shortcoming of the evolution of family assessment as being the development of too many measures measuring too many constructs.
Dr. Carlson explores the theoretical and practical issues in family assessment. Using family systems theory, Carlson explores the assessment process highlighting the different purposes served by clinical and research assessment procedures. Whereas structural adequacy in measurement is essential to the goal of research in verifying theory, clinicians\u27 use of assessment to guide treatment calls for the functional or treatment utility of measures through the multifunction, sequential family assessment process that leads to decision making and evaluation. A multisystem-multimethod approach to family assessment is recommended by Dr. Carlson to guide family assessment.
The second section of the volume explores the assessment of particular family dynamics. These include aspects of marital quality, assessment of sibling relationships within families, constructs and measurement techniques associated with family health, and special challenges associated with assessing families from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Dr. James Bray\u27s chapter is an in-depth look at the theory and measurement of family health. He views the health of the individual from the ecological perspective of the family, both in terms of the development of individual health/ adjustment and maintenance and resolution of problems. Bray acquaints the reader with the basic assumptions of systems approaches to families and to family health. He reviews research and theory regarding healthy family functioning and issues to be addressed when studying families. Bray provides an organizational framework for studying the family that includes: status, process, affect, and organization.
Although previous chapters illustrate the challenges inherent in family assessment, Dr. Jane Close Conoley and Lorrie E. Bryant\u27s chapter suggests that assessing ethnically diverse families further complicates the measurement process. Cultural sensitivity, the array of constructs examined in multicultural family assessment with a variety of populations, and adequacy of measurement techniques are analyzed and suggestions are offered to clinicians for the utilization of valid assessment procedures. Conoley and Bryant argue against the use of ethnic glosses and suggest that clinicians view families in the context of their specific family systems as well as from the perspective of their cultural norms. Identification of family membership and roles of family members are discussed within the context of various cultures.
Michelle Schicke\u27s chapter is an exposition of sibling relationships as they relate to psychosocial development and family structure. The research literature on the characteristics and the quality of sibling relationships is reviewed and issues involved in the assessment of these relationships are discussed. Schicke\u27s investigation illustrates the multiplicity of influences on anyone individual in the family system in his or her relationship with other family members. The birth of a sibling, birth order, quality of interactions among siblings, combined with other relationship variables and individual characteristics such as gender and temperament, influence and are influenced by parental involvement and response
Preface
No full textThis volume in the Buros-Nebraska Series on Testing and Measurement provides state-of-the-art contributions concerning the interface between computer technology and traditional psychometrics. The volume title, Computers and the Decision-Making Process, describes both reality and potential in a field that provides a dizzying array of promises and problems to be pursued and be solved.
This volume like the previous ones in our series reflects papers given at the annual Buros-Nebraska Symposium on Testing and Measurement and those especially commissioned for the book. Each of the contributors has a special expertise to examine the complex issues raised by the addition of the computer to the field of measurement.
The reader will notice the book has chapters concerning guidelines for computer testing, validity issues, personality testing and behavioral assessment, intelligent systems, applications in industrial/organizational psychology, and legal issues. The volume editors have endeavored successfully to provide a review of the many content areas affected by computer technology, new applications of the computer to solve old measurement problems, and new problems created by the use of the computer.
The major sections of the book are as follows: an introduction and overview of the promise of psychodiagnostic systems by Drs. Jackson, Watkins, and McDermott; analysis of validity concerns both in general about computer-based test interpretation and more specifically about programs related to the MMPI by Drs. Moreland, Eyde, Kowal, and Fishburne; applications of computer technology in behavioral assessment and industrial/organizational psychology by Drs. Kratochwill, Doll, Dickson, and Shoenfeldt; an indepth review of expert systems of computer assisted instruction by Drs. Noonan, Sarvela, O\u27Neil, and Baker; and finally, legal cautions and standard setting by Drs. Bersoff, Hofer, and Green.
An analysis of our list of contributors will indicate the editors have gathered together an impressive group of scholars to create this volume. They represent measurement experts from across the country who have particular strengths in their chosen areas. The Buros Institute of Mental Measurements is very grateful to each of these professionals for contributing their special wisdom in the creation of this book
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