Sunday, October 1, 2017

Take a brief Counseling Test Quiz 101

Can you answer these questions that every counselor ought to know?

Choose the BEST available answer.

I'll post the answers below.

1. If the correlation between a test of intelligence and a test of achievement is usually between .88 and .92, how well can you use the intelligence test results to predict achievement test results?

A. Very well
B. Moderately well
C. Not well at all
D. None of the above

2. A personality test score was high on a scale of Extraversion. The validity of the Extraversion scale was reported as .52 to .57 compared to similar tests. How much confidence should the person have that their score is "valid?"

A. A high degree
B. A moderate degree
C. A low degree
D. None of the above

3. School counselors administered a questionnaire to 1,000 students. They calculated results for answers about four school improvements rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Most of the scores were in the range of 18 to 20. The counselors reported a mean rating of 4.6 for each of the 4 items. Based on these data, what should they have reported?

A. The mean is fine-- an average is all that is needed.
B. They should report the Mean and Standard Deviation.
C. They should report the reliability with the mean.
D. They should report the median and range.

4. An agency director asks a counselor to determine if there was evidence of improvement in well-being for clients in one of three treatment groups. Assuming a normal distribution of the data, which of the following statistical procedures could provide the best answer?

A. An independent samples t test
B. A one-way analysis of variance
C. A two-way analysis of variance
D. A chi-square test


1. A. Other things being equal, the correlation between the two tests is strong thus, most of the time the intelligence test score will be a good predictor of the achievement test score. See Chapter 12 in Applied Statistics: Concepts for Counselors.

2. C. We do not know much about the validation of the Extraversion scale ; however, we know the validity values in the .50s are low so the best answer, given the limited data, is C. Validity coefficients range from 0.0 to 1.0. Important note: Validity is a product of the interpretation of data based on scores. Although it is common to refer to a test's validity, tests really do not have validity. Instead, there is a history of validity statistics and interpretations associated with validity. See chapter 20 in Applied Statistics: Concepts for Counselors.

3. D. The data appeared skewed given that 4 items on a 5-point scale would yield a maximum of 20. So, based on the limited data, the median would be the most typical value. When reporting the mean, counselors ought to report the standard deviation, but in this case, the median appears to be the best value. See Chapters 7-10 of Applied Statistics: Concepts for Counselors.

4. A one-way analysis of variance can be used to analyze data from two or more groups. If the overall value is statistically significant, t tests or other post hoc tests can be used to compare pairs of means. See Chapters 15-17 of Applied Statistics: Concepts for Counselors.

APPLIED STATISTICS: CONCEPTS FOR COUNSELORS is available as an eBook or paperback from AMAZON.

Book website

"If you need to review basic statistics and don’t know where to begin, this book is perfect! It makes difficult concepts easy to understand. I would recommend it for my undergraduate students who haven’t had Statistics in a while and need a refresher, or for graduate students facing their first graduate level research class!"
...Heather L. Kelly, Psy.D., Professor of Psychology, Evangel University
Springfield, Missouri, USA

You may also find this book relevant.

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