Problems with Psychological Testing for the Behavior Analyst: Issues of Philosophical Dissensions Beyond Semantics
Date of Award
7-6-2015
Document Type
Undergraduate Capstone Project
Degree Name
Psy.D.
Organizational Unit
Graduate School of Professional Psychology
First Advisor
Ragnar Storaasli
Second Advisor
John McNeil
Third Advisor
Michael Stein
Keywords
Behavior analysis, Psychological testing, Assessment, Philosophy
Abstract
The qualification to administer traditional psychological tests is largely privileged to doctoral level mental health providers and represents an important demarcation between clinicians with a doctorate or masters degree. Furthermore, psychological testing has increasingly become an emphasized training standard in doctoral clinical psychology programs. For the behavior analyst, however, traditional psychological assessment is at odds with the philosophical and theoretical foundations of contextual behavioral science and according therapeutic applications. Such odds are not just semantics that can be accommodated with choice of terminology, but rather begin at the level of worldview. Differences in worldview between behavior analysis and mainstream contemporary psychology are discussed with emphasis on major distinctions in relation to language, causality, and science plans, and how these distinctions directly apply to psychological assessment. The paper concludes with a discussion about how the behavioral analyst can approach testing given some fundamental philosophical dissensions that cannot be modified or translated via semantic changes.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.
Extent
33 pages
Recommended Citation
Gagnon, Lindsey, "Problems with Psychological Testing for the Behavior Analyst: Issues of Philosophical Dissensions Beyond Semantics" (2015). Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects. 6.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/capstone_masters/6