Multiculturalism
Psychological testing as it relates to multiculturalism is an important issue in Educational Psychology (Geisinger, 1994). Geisinger reported that research findings regarding this topic raise awareness within the profession and allow scholar/practitioners to think as academic scientists. Psychometrics as it relates to multiculturalism takes into consideration that when assessing individuals from other cultures, proficiency in the English language may be limited or nonexistence. A number of additional questions and issues arise regarding the application of psychological testing to multiple cultures: can a meaningful assessment take place through an interpreter trained for such an eventuality; how does the measure need to be adapted to another language and culture; how is it clear that the test continues to measure the same construct in the new language or culture; is the new adapted measure useful; and do the scores from the new test mean the same as they originally did. To insure the answers to these questions, the new test must be assessed for psychometric properties, such as with a pilot test. New reliability and validity information must be established based on the new version or the adaptability of the old version (Geisinger, 1994).
Race and ethnic differences are found in mental test scores and controversy continues as to reasons for these differences (Reynolds, 2000). Reynolds reported that common explanations are that there are genetic, environmental, or interactive genes/environmental differences related to cultures. Another explanation is that tests fail to assess a minority's true aptitude, knowledge, or skills. The last explanation continues to remain a focus of psychometric research. The ethnic and racial group differences in test scores may be due to cultural test bias, which underestimates the aptitude of the minority. The tests contain systematic error due to group membership (Reynolds, 2000).