The meeting of two personalities is like the
contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are
transformed. ~ Carl Jung
As I write these words, I am a senior citizen, sequestered on
my wildlife sanctuary homestead. A Pandemic is causing the shutdown of the
world around me. Health authorities are
responding to a respiratory illness called COVID-19, caused by a novel
coronavirus. Scientific leaders are reporting that we do not yet have adequate
tools to access, much less halt this highly contagious threat, especially to the
elderly and others with compromised immunity. The major prescription is social distancing
and hand washing. Economists report a growing number facing unemployment as
businesses are on a roller coaster in steep decline. With major cities going to
lockdown we are moving quickly towards depression. This is unpresented in my
lifetime and the future is uncertain to say the least.
I started my Counseling Career within the NJ Department of
Labor working for the Public Employment Services. Developed during the 1930s the
GATB (General Aptitude Test Battery) was the test we used supposedly to assess
“Cognitive (G,V,N), Perceptual (S,P,Q) and Psychomotor (K,F,M) abilities. GATB
Career Assessment Research
Back then, the last three decades of the 20th Century, if
people were interested in funded training they were routinely “tested” as a
step in the process and it was not uncommon to test applicants if requested by
employers. I had coworkers who marketed
our services to employers, at no cost because we were the government, which
served our needs to protect our jobs helping our job applicants find gainful
employment. I had coworkers that were “certified” who administered and
monitored the standardized, timed tests, in specified environments. I did not
test, but I was taught to interpret the results.
I was serving a client who scored well above average in
eight of the tests and well below average in one. It did not make sence to me
and I thought, unless perhaps subconsciously she had self-sabotaged. Every training and every job had a minimum set
of numbers people had to hit for consideration and her one low score eliminated
virtually all options. As I recall that was the theme of our counseling
session. I did remember from graduate school in the course on statistics, that
while hitting numbers on achievement tests and aptitude tests “proved” a person
possessed the ability, not hitting the numbers was not proving otherwise. I
read an article the other day about coronavirus testing and the statistical
possibility of false
negatives and false positives. Yes,
I know they are dealing with a life threatening situation, but my
understanding, my experience, is through the lens of employment counseling.
I suppose employers who used our tests to “ensure” they had
“qualified” prospective new employees, were putting a lot of faith in the value
of the procedure. However, I remembered a fraternity brother in college who had
lost considerable money at the race track and found it necessary to apply for a
position at the local convenience store. He had been given a test supposedly to
measure not only cognitive abilities, but also the degree of his honesty. He
was an upperclassman, quite intelligent, scored exceptionally well in math and
verbal ability and was laughing at how easily he saw through the attempts to
unveil his veracity. Yesterday, a Facebook friend posted about Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai
writing, “The coronavirus fear-mongering by the Deep State will go down in
history as one of the biggest frauds to manipulate economies, suppress dissent,
& push MANDATED Medicine!” His source was the heavily “right” leaning, conservative
Western Journal. Obviously, every situation, every assessment test, has a wide
variety of interpretations about truth. Looking at alternative sources is
called Lateral
Reading, a fact checker tool!
Today we have an incredible array of instruments available,
formal and informal assessments, to give us clues about test takers. As helping professionals, our task is to
ensure the appropriate use of assessment, research, and evaluation techniques.
We have to consider with our “customers” the purpose of assessment, what we
want to measure and why, and help in the process of exploration. We need to
acquire and elicit an understanding of assessment devices that claim to measure
strengths,
personality
preferences, work
values and a host of various other options.
Using a test professionally in the Career Development or
Employment Process undoubtedly is related to a theory which holds some truth
for us or the person we are serving. When I wrote my Thesis on Employment
Counseling back in 1975, I took many of the major assessments available at the
time and wrote about their value in relationship to me. The experience was
quite enlightening.
Hopefully we consult with colleagues to hear about the value
they have experienced using such tools with their clients. I know members of
the Association for Research and
Assessment in Counseling who revel in reading about the validity and
reliability of standardized formal assessment, measuring algorithms,
contemplating design, accuracy and scientific approach. Many libraries offer
access to the Mental
Measurements Yearbook containing information and critical evaluations, pros
and cons, of educational and psychological tests.
Assessment products are quite diverse in Career Counseling and
yet, often we see many of the same components. O*NET is the federal government’s
Occupational Information System, our country’s primary source of occupational
information. It also contains an Interest
Profiler, Work Importance Locator, Work importance Profiler, Skills Search and Ability
Profiler and many pathways of interconnection. Because its creation was funded by tax payer
dollars, everything is open source and free of charge. Many companies have created
their own systems for sale using O*NET components. If you have taken a Counseling Theory class, you are familiar
with the Self Directed
Search , based on John Holland’s RIASEC Theory, the classification of
people and environments into six basic types. Career Key , is
quite popular in College Counseling Centers, focusing on finding a college
major in relationship to career, incorporating RIASEC.
As a Baby Boomers, I
remember in elementary school, sticking a pin through answers about preferences
in a packaged paper tool called the Kuder preference test. Today the online Kuder Journey
is popular in Military Career Counseling and many school systems. Fun
assessments, some with considerable sophistication, start early in life. The
Northwest Evaluation Association is a nonprofit that offers a large list of
digital tools for teachers on their NWEA
Blog.
Helping people tell their story is clearly at the core of the assessment
process. We know the medical professionals give us forms to get our past
history and ask us questions about how we feel and observe our actions. Consciously
and unconsciously we all are measuring body language and emotional expressions.
In career counseling, tools like the Genogram
help look at family history and the possible influences of our relatives and
ancestors. Mind Mapping
is a process of drawing associations, starting from anywhere, and continuing to
construct paths in any direction, as relationships and ideas come into our
mind. Electronic Portfolios
expand beyond the resume and give us the opportunity to assess who we are as we
display talents and personal creations.
Moving away from cognitive approaches, more artistic
practitioners find that Music,
Art,
Sand
Tray and other non-verbal approaches can provide considerable insights as
assessment tools. Medical School Education is also now embracing a more artistic
curriculum, “Professors argue that engaging in the arts during medical school,
whether through required courses or extracurricular activities, is valuable in
developing essential skills that doctors need, like critical thinking and
observational and communication skills, as well as bias awareness and empathy.”
~ Artsy.com
When our lives are too hectic, we have too large a case load
or are responding to a medical crises with a sence of urgency looming above in
a very dark cloud, the stress can be overwhelming. Self-care is mandatory and
at minimum short breaks for positive meditative visualizations
are my prescription.
Assessment begins as soon as we begin to collect information.
Hopefully our intake procedure and that of our front line coronavirus warriors
is well designed and we all are asking the right questions. When we engage,
from a sociological perspective, we can consider environmental and cultural
influences that might be in play. However, from a psychological perspective we
must never forget that a unique individual is before us. By establishing a
trusting relationship and asking questions for clarification and actively
listening, their world will unfold into our consciousness.
I saw the angel in the
marble and carved until I set him free.
~ Michelangelo
