Chapter 10: Informal Assessment
Observation
Rating Scales
Classification Methods
Records and Personal Documents
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Defining Informal Assessment
Informal assessment techniques are subjective, mostly
“homegrown;”
Reliability, validity, and cross-cultural issues often lacking.
However, informal techniques can do the following:
1. Add one more piece of info to total assessment process.
2. Can be purposeful focused to gather specific information.
3. Can often be used to gather info quickly.
4. Can be non-intrusive, such as using cumulative records at
school, and thus can be nonthreatening.
5. Usually free or low cost.
6. Tend to be easy to administer and interpret.
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Types of Informal Assessment:
Observation
Completed by professionals (e.g., school counselors),
significant others (e.g., spouses), or by self.
Two Types and Combination of Two Types:
 Event sampling: Viewing and assessing targeted
behavior without regard for time (observing acting out
child at school ALL day).
 Time sampling: Specific amount of time set aside for
observation (e.g., viewing acting out child for 10
minutes, 5 times during the day)
 Combining event and time sampling: E.g.: Instructor
randomly observes empathic responses from 3, 5minute segments of clinical interviews from each of a
dozen students who handed in one-hour videotapes.
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Types of Informal Assessment:
Rating Scales (Cont’d)
A rating scale is used to assess a quantity of an
attribute being presented to the rater.
Rating scales are subjective and the assessment is
based on the rater’s “inner judgment” of the rater.
Two types of error often associated with ratings
scales:


The Halo Effect: Rate based on overall impression (e.g.,
intern is exceptional, so you rate examinee high on all
aspects, even though examinee consistently comes in late).
Generosity Error: Identification with person affects your
rating (e.g., you rate fellow student on his or her ability at
exhibiting good counseling skills).
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Types of Informal Assessment:
Rating Scales (Cont’d)
Types of Rating Scales (pp. 199-200):
 Numerical Scales: Provide a written statement that
can be rated from high to low on a number line .
 Graphic Type Scales (Likert-Type Scales): Statement
followed by words that reflect a continuum from
favorable to unfavorable.
 Semantic Differential Scale: Statement followed by
pairs of words that reflect opposing traits.
 Rank Order Scales: Series of statements which
respondent can rank order based on preferences.
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Types of Informal Assessment:
Classification Systems
Provide information about whether or not an individual
has, or does not have, certain attributes or
characteristics.
Three common classification inventories:
1. behavior and feeling word checklists,
2. sociometric instruments, and
3. situational tests.
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Types of Informal Assessment:
Classification Systems (Cont’d)
Types of Classification Systems:
 Behavior and Feeling Word Checklists: Individual
identifies words best describing his or her feelings or
behaviors (see Box 10.2 and Box 10.3, pp. 202-203).
 Sociometric Instruments: Maps relative position of
individual within a group. Often used to determine the
dynamics of individuals within a group (see Figure
10.1, p. 205).
 Situational Tests: Real-to-life situations to examine
how individual is likely to respond in a contrived, but
natural situation (e.g., role-playing a counselor as part
of admissions process for a doctoral program).
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Types of Informal Assessment:
Records and Personal Documents
Can help examiner understand the beliefs, values,
and behaviors of person being assessed.
Often obtained directly from client, from individuals
close to client (e.g., parents, loved ones), and from
institution with which the client has interacted.
More common records and personal documents:
 biographical inventories (see pp. 204-206),
 cumulative records,
 anecdotal information,
 autobiographies,
 journals and diaries, and
 genograms. (see Figures 10.2 and 10.3, p. 209).
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Test Worthiness of Informal
Assessment: Validity
Validity: How well examiner defines that which is being
assessed (e.g., acting out behavior of a child—need to
define the behavior identified as “acting out.”
1. Which “acting out” behaviors are we talking about?
Does it include pushing, interrupting, making
inappropriate nonverbal gestures, withdrawing in
class, and so forth?
2. Does it only include inappropriate behaviors in the
classroom. What about in the hallway, on the
playground, on field trips, and at home (etc.)?
(see Exercise 10.5, p. 210).
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Test Worthiness of Informal
Assessment: Reliability
Intimate relationship between validity and reliability.
The better we define the behavior (the more valid), the
more reliable is our data.
Interrater Reliability: Ideally, two raters who understand the
behavior assess separately. Then, a correlation coefficient
is obtained (hopefully .80 or higher)
E.g., Have student respond empathically to a taped client.
Two highly trained raters, rate their responses from low to
high on a scale. Ratings should be similar (high interrater
reliabilty).
In reality, this rarely occurs due to time and cost.
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Test Worthiness of Informal
Assessment: Cross-cultural Fairness
Informal assessment procedures vulnerable to bias:
1. Unconscious or conscious bias can lead assessor to
misinterpret verbal or nonverbal behaviors.
2. Assessor may be ignorant about the verbal or
nonverbal behaviors of a particular minority group.
However, because uniquely geared towards the specific
client behaviors, one can choose exactly which
behaviors to focus upon.
This can have the benefit of adding sharpened focus to
the understanding of the individual.
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Test Worthiness of Informal
Assessment: Practicality
The practical nature of informal assessments makes
them particularly useful:
 low-cost or cost-free,
 can be created or obtained in a short amount of
time,
 are relatively easy to administer, and
 with the exception of possible cultural bias, are
fairly easy to interpret.
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Final Thoughts on Informal
Assessment
Informal assessment techniques sometimes have
questionable reliability, validity, and may not always be
cross-culturally fair
They can add one additional mechanism for
understanding the person.
When making important decisions about a person, they
should generally not be used alone but can be an
important addition to a broader assessment battery.
Use them wisely and keep in mind the importance that
they add to the decisions one is making about a client.
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