Chapter 4
Assessment and Classification of
Child Behavior Disorders
Assessment and Classification: Alike
but Different
• Assessment - Process of colleting
information through observation of
behavior, testing of of performance
• Classification – categorizing child into a
grouping based on diagnostic analysis of the
assessment information
Standards of Assessment
• Any type of method is subject to error
• Error is always present to a certain degree;
information is an approximation
– Random error – Chance
– Systematic error – Assessment procedure
always off to a certain degree
• Reliability – indication of consistency of
procedure
• Factors that reduce reliability
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Ambiguous procedures
Poorly trained evaluators
Widely varying behavior of children
Varying assessment conditions
Validity
• Validity is a better measure for systematic
error. Validity determines how accurately
an assessment measures what it says it will
measure
Types of Reliability and Validity
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Test-retest reliability
Alternate form reliability
Internal consistency reliability
Inter-rater reliability
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Content validity
Concurrent validity
Predictive validity
Construct validity
Utility
• Utility of an assessment is extent to which
the assessment information is used to make
practical, cost effective and correct
decisions
– False negative – condition truly exists but is
missed by assessment
– False positive – assessment positively identified
a problem when one doesn’t exist
Psychological Test
• Psychological Test – an objective and
standardized measure of a sample of
behavior
– Standardized measure – indicates that explicitly
defined procedures are to be employed in
administering the test.
Holding testing conditions constant
• Same items or test questions are given in the same
order to all subjects
• The same test instructions are given to all subjects
in an identical fashion
• All subjects have the same amount of time to
finish the test
• The testing environment is held relatively constant
and free from noise and distraction for all subjects
Intelligence Tests
• LM.Terman helped refine and standardize
the concept of IQ (intelligence quotient) to
compare relative intelligence of children at
different ages
– IQ is child’s “mental age” divided by
chronological and multiplied by 100
WISC-III-R
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children –
Revised – one of most frequently used
intelligence tests
– Combines both verbal subscales and
performance subscales
Intelligence Tests: Construct Validity
• What exactly is intelligence?
– Binet – abilities that include comprehension,
reasoning, judgment and ability to adapt
– Weschler – abilities that include capacity to “act
purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal
effectively with the environment”
– G factor – general ability factor
– Spearman – basic mental energy
• However, all of previous definitions rely on
an indirect measure of intelligence obtained
by sampling selected behaviors under
controlled conditions
– Intelligence tests mostly sample and measure
verbal ability and perceptual and performance
ability
• One of controversies surrounding
Intelligence tests
– Using Intelligence tests on children from
diverse cultures
– Language differences offer more opportunities
for errors and test bias
• Inappropriate use of tests has led to over
identification and mislabeling minority children as
having disabilities
Projective Tests
• Some of most popular assessment
procedures used with children
• “Clinicians delight and a statistician’s
nightmare”
– Most popular tests based on psychoanalytic
assumptions rather than rigorous
standardization procedures
Projective Techniques
• Association techniques – inkblots, word
associations
• Construction techniques – child creates a product
(story) after seeing testing materials
• Completion techniques – a child is asked to
complete a statement or brief story
• Choice of ordering technique – a child ranks
materials in order of preference
• Expressive techniques – A child creates product of
own choice.
Rorschach and TAT
• Rorschach – test has 10 cards with symmetrical
inkblots (half b&w, half colored)
– Child initially asked what each blot represents, then
asked to justify response
• Thematic Apperception Test – 20-30 cards, each
depicting fantasy scenes and child develops a
story about picture.
– Clinician interprets story (no universally accepted
method for scoring TAT)
Projective Tests: Critiques
• Popular but usefulness is consistently
criticized
• Some argue they are more “clinical tools”
and not psychological tests
• Some argue that they do not really provide
much information beyond what could be
obtained in standard psychological tests
Personality Inventories and Behavior
Rating Scales
• Identify traits or consistent behavior
patterns in children
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California Psychological Inventory
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Jessness Personality Inventory
Personality Inventory for Children
• Derived statistically through factor analysis
and are well standardized with normative
groups
• Require rater that can judge presence of a
specific behavior or personality
characteristic
• Personality Inventories tend to describe
broad traits that together help describe
whole personality
• Behavior checklists identify broad-band
characteristics that can be broken into
specific problematic behavior patterns
Behavioral Observation
• Behavioral observation (gathering
information in natural environment) is most
direct form of assessment based on a
sampling method
– Antecedents and consequences can be observed
Methods
• Frequency Recording – tallying or event
recording
• Interval Recording can record discrete and
non-discrete behaviors
• Duration Recording times onset and offset
of behavior
• Latency Recording records time from
stimulus to start of behavior
• All methods require precise definitions of
target behavior
• Observation codes explicitly define target
behaviors to be observed in one
environmental setting. It allows for
description of several different behaviors
that occur at once – a “photograph”
Interviewing
• The “cornerstone of assessment”
• Used to start an evaluation technique that
will use other techniques, and helps
clinician decide on subsequent techniques
Classification Systems
• Diagnosing a behavior disorder is the
process of using an accepted classification
system and a set of operational definitions
to identify a child’s atypical behavioral
characteristics
• Allows clinician to match child’s behavior
to a subcategory resulting in diagnosis, and
possible treatment outcomes
Characteristics and Functions of
Behavior Classification
• Classification systems have error built into
them. Good systems share the following
– Can be used with consistency by different
diagnosticians
– Includes manageable number of behavior
disorders
– Should be flexible enough to allow for growth
and development
Psychiatric Classification
• DSM-IV-TR is most widely know mental health
system. Most common critiques include:
– Shortcomings concerning basic psychometric
characteristics of reliability, validity, and utility
– Doesn’t adequately handle disorders where symptoms
can have a wide spectrum of intensities
– Problems with criteria for very young children or with
diverse cultures
Functional Behavior Assessment and
Classification
• Alternative to DSM rooted in early applied
behavior analysis
• Less emphasis on labeling and classifying;
more emphasis on how a behavior is
functionally controlled in the environment
• Not a passive system. Child probed in
experimental conditions with specific
antecedents and consequences