Psychological Testing & Privacy Issue

Of the many ethical issues surrounding psychological testing, two have received particularly prolonged public scrutiny: the issues of privacy and confidentiality. Widespread public concern about psychological testing began just after World War I, when many psychologists attempted to adapt military group tests for use in civilian life, but fears didn't peak until the late 1950s with the proliferation of large-scale psychological testing in schools, the increased use of personality and ability tests in the military, in government, and in business, and a series of sensational articles and books on the subject (Cohen, Montague, Nathanson & Swerdik, 1988).

In this paper we will take a closer look at the concepts of privacy and confidentiality as they relate to psychological testing. We will also examine some of the guidelines within the psychological community, as well as some of the relevant legislation and litigation.

The right to privacy has been defined as an individuals right to choose the extent to which he discloses his attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and actions to another person (Anastasi, 1982; Cohen et al., 1988). Thus, to the extent that some psychological tests are constructed in such a way that the individual taking them may not be aware that he is revealing certain information about himself, the tests are clearly an invasion of that person's privacy. However, it must be noted that we all unwittingly or unwillingly reveal information about ourselves in less formal

Related Essays

Psychological Testing & Issue of Privacy .... (Graham & Lilly, 1984) The purpose of testing is an issue which must be considered in any discussion of privacy in psychological testing. .... (1694 7 )

Psychologist Testing .... 1989) has discussed one ethical issue in particular .... ethical issues that can arise in psychological testing is provided .... there can be strong desires for privacy. .... (1532 6 )

Privacy in the Workplace .... sizes have intruded on the privacy of would .... and criminal history, drug testing, lie detector tests, aptitude tests, psychological evaluations, medical .... (1572 6 )

COMPULSORY DRUG ABUSE TESTING EMPLOYERS .... alcoholics, many, if not most, have psychological problems which .... Objections to drug testing in the workplace are .... of the individual's right to privacy, and (2 .... (3825 15 )

High School Drug Testing .... an individual student's right to privacy (http://www .... to this last issue that drug-testing of students .... avoid the significant physical and psychological costs of .... (1411 6 )

is institutional testing. Anastasi (1982) argues that the examinee should be informed of the nature of the test and the use that will be made of the results in these situations. Naturally, if the test has to do with employment, it should not ask any questions which are considered discriminatory under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (such as marital status, age, race, religion, etc.) and if the individual does not give consent, the results must not be disseminated. The issue here is more one of confidentiality than of privacy, which we will discuss in more detail later. Two last concepts related to the right of privacy are relevance and informed consent. Relevance in this context involves the principle that all information that the individual is asked to reveal should be relevant to the stated purpose of the test. In other words, the test items must be scientifically valid. It is also important for the examiner to interpret the scores correctly and not make any unwarranted inferences from them or attach any unnecessarily stigmatizing labels to the person (Anastasi, 1982; Graham & Lilly, 1984). The concept of informed consent is crucial in the resolution of the conflict between the values of individual privacy and f

Category: Psychology - P