Psychological profile tests evaluate a person’s psychological makeup, measuring intelligence, personality traits, and identifying disorders. Tests can involve observing behavior or answering multiple-choice questions. They are used in counseling, academic, and employment settings to gain insight into the subject. Observational testing is useful for children with emotional or mental disorders.
A psychological profile test is a type of quiz or questionnaire intended to evaluate a person’s psychological makeup. These tests can be used to measure intelligence, delineate basic personality traits or identify psychological disorders. A psychological profile test may involve observing the person’s behavior, especially as they interact with others, to understand interpersonal problems and how psychological disorders may influence these problems. These profile tests can use a variety of techniques to evaluate a psychological patient.
Many tests, especially those designed to identify personality traits or possible mental disorders, ask the candidate to answer multiple-choice questions based on their average or normal behavior. Other types of tests, such as those intended to measure intelligence, ask the test taker to answer the test questions correctly. Still others, such as the Rorschach test, ask the candidate to freely associate or explain personal, subjective feelings about images or situations.
The use of a psychological profile test can be part of psychological counseling for a mental or personality disorder. The average psychologist will first rely on a personal interview with the patient, in order to identify any mental disorders or emotional problems. A psychological profile test may come in handy in a therapeutic setting where the psychologist has failed to glean accurate or meaningful information from a personal interview.
A type of psychological profile testing known as observational testing is considered to be particularly useful when counseling children with emotional or mental disorders. Children often don’t have much information about their own behavior. Psychological tests for adults are usually based on the person’s ability to tell what, for him, is normal, everyday behavior. They may also rely on the person’s ability to extrapolate what she might say or do in a particular situation. Young children often lack the self-awareness for this type of test and may not yet have learned to explain their feelings, beliefs, and experiences in words.
Observational testing is typically performed in a therapeutic setting, which places the test subject in the company of others. For a child, others can be parents, peers, or family members. The experienced psychologist can usually draw very useful conclusions by observing the subject interacting with others in a social context. These types of tests are often used to identify behavioral disorders in children or emotional bonding problems between children and parents, peers, or others.
Employers, schools, and other institutions often use psychology profile tests to gain useful insight into the subject of the test. In an academic setting, this information is often used to help identify learning disabilities or to help individually tailor an academic program to a student’s specific needs. Employers often use such tests to determine an applicant’s suitability for the job, usually in relation to the person’s level of intelligence and degree of personal integrity. Government institutions, especially the courts, sometimes use these tests to determine an accused person’s fitness to stand trial or to identify a possible motive for crimes.
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