There are many psychological testing instruments available to psychologists that assist them in making behavioral health diagnoses. It is especially important, however, for the evaluator to use objective psychological testing rather than subjective tests. Here’s the difference and why this is so important.

Subjective Tests Versus Objective Tests

Subjective tests are assessment tools that are scored according to the personal judgment of the evaluator or to standards that are less systematic than objective tests. For example, in an academic setting, a student writes an essay and hopes that the teacher “likes” it enough to get a good grade. This type of testing is call “subjective” because it relies heavily on the personal feelings and opinions of the person providing the outcome score, rather than known data. These testing measures are not given much weight in terms substantiating diagnoses and their severity.

Objective psychological testing is much more precise and accurate in terms of providing medically substantiated behavioral health diagnoses because no personal impressions are involved. True-False tests and multiple choice tests are examples of objective testing. When a psychologist administers an objective psychological test, the evaluee’s answers are then compared to statistical data (norms) collected from a large group of persons with known psychological disorders. Thus, the test answers are compared against these standards, rather than leaving the judgement up to the psychologist’s personal opinion. While clinical judgement is very important to psychological evaluation and diagnosis, objective psychological testing that confirms a psychologist’s clinical judgement makes for a much more well-rounded and sound opinion.

Test Selection

In addition to using objective tests, the psychologist should select objective tests that are considered to be the most valid instruments in the field of psychology. For example, while there is more than one IQ test in the field of psychology, only one of them is recognized by the State of Florida’s Division of Disability Determinations as an acceptable instrument in terms of providing medically substantiated intellectual and/or other cognitive impairments. Dr. Jalazo uses only the highest quality psychological testing instruments that are considered the gold standard in the industry.