Writing Interpretive Reports meaningful & useful suggestions

1. Writing Interpretive Reports meaningful & useful suggestions

2. Overview • Personal Growth • Career Counseling • For Other Professionals • Diagnostic Purposes • General Principles

3. Personal Growth • Create a comprehensive picture of the individual • Relate the test scores to all relevant background information • Lead to practical suggestions, skill development, and compensatory strategies

4. Career Counseling • Focus on occupational aptitudes and interest • Relate the test scores to the client’s educational and occupational history • Lead the client toward further investigation, goal setting, and decision making

5. For Other Professionals • Focus on the decision to be made by the other professional • Provide an objective summary of the test results • Relate the test scores to the client’s disposition during testing to establish validity • Limit interpretations and synthesis, report the scores in a more clinical, technical style

6. Diagnostic Purposes • Typically made by a psychologist, psychiatrist, or multidisciplinary team • Relate the test scores to the client’s disposition during testing to establish validity • Limit interpretations and synthesis to the role of the counselor on the team

7. General Principles • Ultimately the report format, style, reach, and tone will be determined by: • Who has to make decisions based on the results? • How high are the stakes?

8. General Principles • Remember that many things influence test scores: • Measurement properties of the test • Cultural factors and client background • The client’s motivation • The client’s experience with other tests • Physical and psychological conditions of the testing • Inherent ability

9. General Principles • It is always important to comment on and try to establish the degree of validity of the testing situation • However, this section can be very brief if: • The client expressed appropriate behaviors • Took the task seriously • Had no significant distractions or adverse reactions and needed no breaks

10. General Principles • A valid testing situation is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for strong conclusions • Confine statements to tentative or suggestive language • Do not try to prove or establish fact • Help the client learn and make decisions

11. SEM and Confidence Intervals • For technically savvy audiences, use the standard error of measurement and confidence interval concepts • For a 95% Confidence Interval • Score + / - (1.96 * SEM)

12. SEM and Confidence Intervals • John scored a 97 on an IQ test. • Mean = 100 • SD = 15 • SEM = 3 • What is John’s true IQ?

13. SEM and Confidence Intervals • We don’t know. • We are 95% confident that John’s true score on this IQ test is between 91 and 103. • If John took this test 100 times, 95 of the intervals we could put around his score would capture his true score.

14. General Principles • Do not over interpret percentiles • Remember that small changes in T scores near the middle of the distribution can account for relatively large changes in percentiles

15. General Principles

16. General Principles • Flat profiles are reasonably likely to occur • It does not necessarily mean something was wrong with the test or examinee motivation • Everything is within the normal range and other indicators are necessary to determine relative strengths and areas for growth

17. General Principles • Always include a brief description of the purpose for which each test was developed • Briefly describe what each test is intended to measure • Summarize the technical properties of each test

18. General Principles • Decide on the central message of the report • State it early, and state it again in the summary • Support that message throughout the report with various types of evidence: • Test scores, client background and life experiences, behavioral observations, and client self-disclosures

19. General Principles • Use carefully chosen adverbs and adjectives to describe behaviors the client might exhibit • Strike a balance between the test scores and other sources of information • Organize and synthesize the information for the reader

20. General Principles • The test scores themselves may provoke negative reactions for some audiences • Parents may resent or be confused by their child being reduced to “a set of numbers” or “labels” • A simple interpretive summary may be fine

21. General Principles • It is sometimes helpful to relate the test scores to the client’s: • Past experiences, successes, and failures • Present functioning and life circumstances • Future plans, goals, and life circumstances • Keep a balanced and objective tone • Emphasize both strengths and areas for growth

22. General Principles • Be aware of how the test scores and the report will be used (or misused) • Be aware of hidden agendas • Sometimes test scores can only hurt someone • Consequential validity of the report

23. Don’t Ignore Personal Qualities • Personal qualities can be powerful stress buffers and offer compensatory skills • Social skills • Social connections • Employment history • Life experiences • Common sense • Maturity

24. Balancing Different Indicators • Playing NCAA Athletics as a freshman

25. Report Writing Resources • http://www.msresource.com/format.html • http://www.msresource.com/theory.html