Confidence Intervals

Psychological Tests. The thing that makes psychologists different from other mental health professionals. Our most unique claim to scientific fame. What's it all about? Psychology, as a science, uses the scientific method to figure things out. When we have a question, we will make a hypothesis, come up with a way to test it, do the test, look at the data, and draw conclusions from the data - all while talking about limitations to the test that was done. In effect, that is what psychological testing is. Asking a question like, "what are the cognitive strengths and weaknesses of a person," led to a test like the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, or the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, or the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities. It was a way to answer the same question without having to make a new test every time. And because they wanted to answer the same question for a bunch of different people, they made sure they could show that the tests measure what t...

Just imagine it: A man, lying on a couch, talking about his life and his problems and staring at a nondescript point just beyond his gesticulating fingertips. Behind him, another man, with thin, wire glasses perched on the end of his nose, staring professional and concerned at a legal pad with a regal ballpoint pen, scribbling away on his right-over-left crossed legs. That is probably one of the most classic pictures of therapy that exists, especially in all the memes these days. Truth be told, it is actually a legit form of therapy that some select psychologists, counselors, and psychiatrists may use from time to time. But it is far from what therapy looks like anymore, on the regular. What comes to your mind when you think of the word "therapy"? What thoughts, images, phrases, problems, etc...do you come up with? As a graduate student in clinical psychology, I have heard a lot of responses, even though I'm only in my first year of this five-year program. I have ...