Questions

Respond to the following questions in 75 to 100 words, based on your readings for this week.

1. What are the most commonly used individual achievement tests? What are the most commonly used diagnostic tests? In what settings are these tests usually used? What are some unique features of each achievement test? Why may you choose a specific test over another?

2. What is the difference between aptitude tests and achievement tests? What types of results do each provide? How can these results be used?

3. What are multiple-aptitude test batteries? What are specialized aptitude tests? What are some examples of each? When would you use these tests?

Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory

Read the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory.

Discuss the pros and cons of this instrument with your Learning Team.

Respond to the questions that follow in 50 to 75 words each.

Critique: Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory

You are a middle school counselor who is starting a new group aimed at enhancing self-concept in students. You work at a large urban school with a culturally and linguistically diverse population of students. You have heard about the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), but you are unsure whether it is the appropriate instrument to use.

After reviewing information below about the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), answer the questions that follow.

Description:

The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI; Coopersmith, 1981) measures evaluative attitudes toward the self in social, academic, family, and personal areas of experience. Coopersmith defined self-esteem as a judgment of worthiness that is expressed by the attitudes he or she holds toward the self. He believes that self-esteem is significantly associated with effective functioning, such as school performance.

Each questionnaire presents respondents with generally favorable or generally unfavorable statements about the self, which they indicate as like me or unlike me. The School Form is a 50-item inventory designed for 8- to 15-year-old children. It has provides a Total Self Score as well as scores on four subscales: General Self (Gen), Social Self/Peers (Soc), Home/Parents (H), and School/Academic (Sch). The School

Form is accompanied by an 8-item Lie Scale to assess defensiveness. The School Short Form is comprised of 25 items from the School Form.

The Adult Form is an adaptation of the School Short Form for individuals over 15 years of age.

Administration time rarely exceeds 10 minutes. The instrument can be hand scored in a few minute using scoring keys. For interpretation, high scores correspond to high self-esteem. A high Lie Scale score suggests defensiveness (indicates that the test taker attempted to respond positively to all items).

Technical Information

Norm Group: The SEI was administered to 643 public school children in grades 3 through 8. The sample consisted primarily of students from the lower and middle-upper socioeconomic ranges. The test manual stated that, a considerable number of Spanish surnamed and Black children were included in the sample. The manual strongly recommends that users develop local norm groups.

Reliability

Test-retest: The test-retest reliability coefficient after a 5-week interval (with a sample of 30 5th graders) was .88. Test-retest reliability after a 3-year interval, with a sample of 56 public school children, was .70.

Internal consistency: Studies reported KR20 coefficients ranging from .87 to 92 on scores for school children in grades 4 through 8.

Alternate forms: A study comparing the SEI to a Canadian version of the test (using a sample of 198 children in 3rd through 6th grades) found correlation coefficients ranging from .71 to .80.

Validity

Content Validity Evidence: Most of the items on the SEI School Form were adapted from scale items used by Rogers and Dymond (1954) in their classic study of nondirective psychotherapy; several original items were also included. All of the statements were worded for use with children aged 8 to 10. Five psychologists sorted the items into two groups-those indicative of high self-esteem and those indicative of low self-esteem. Items that seemed repetitious or ambiguous, or about which there was disagreement, were eliminated.

Concurrent Validity Evidence: SEI scores correlated with the SRA Achievement Series and the Lorge Thorndike Intelligence Test at .33 and .30, respectively.

Predictive Validity Evidence: Reading Gifted Evaluation Scale (a measure of reading achievement) scores correlated with the SEI General Self Subscale and Lie Scale scores at .35 and .39 respectively.

Convergent validity Evidence: Correlation between SEI scores and the California Psychological Inventory Self-Acceptance Scale was .45.

Subscale Intercorrelations (internal structure):

Questions:

1. Describe and evaluate the norm group. Do you think it is representative? Do you think the norm group is current? Do you believe the size of the norm group was large enough? Is the sample related to the population you intend to use the test with? Explain your answers.

2. Describe and evaluate each method used to estimate reliability. Does the reliability evidence support a decision to use the instrument? Explain your response.

3. Describe and evaluate each type of validity evidence. Does the validity evidence support a decision to use the instrument? Explain your answers.

4. Describe the practical aspects of the instrument.

5. Summarize the strengths and weakness of the inventory.

6. Based on your review of the SII, would you adopt this instrument? Explain your answer.

From Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories: Manual, by S. Coopersmith, 1981. Menlo Park, CA: Mind Garden, Inc.

From Exercises from Assessment Procedures for Counselors and Helping Professionals, 8/e, by R. J. Drummond and K. D. Jones, 2016, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Copyright 2016 by Pearson Education, Inc. Adapted with permission.