5

MULTICULTURAL ASSESSMENT – I
Unit Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Cross-cultural sensitivity in assessment: using tests in culturally
appropriate ways.
5.2.1 What is Culturally Sensitive Assesment?
5.2.2 Concerns in Culturally Sensitive
5.2.3 Translation and Adaptation of Tests
5.2.4 Recommendations for Nonbiased Assessment Practices
5.3 Summary
5.4 Questions
5.5 References

5.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you will be able to understand:
 The importance of cultural sensitivity in assessment.
 The meaning of cultural sensitivity
 Complexity and precautions to be taken in translation and adaptation
of tests
 Factors to keep in mind while doing nonbiased assessment

5.1 INTRODUCTION
Educators, counsellors, and therapists often use assessment tools to collect
information about their clients so that they can determine the line of
treatment. Educators use standardized tests to assess the academic
performance of students to determine whether they should be promoted to
the next grade. These assessment tools are used to gather information for
various other purposes too, such as career guidance, recruitment, training,
etc. Most of these tools have been standardized on white male Eurocentric
populations and do not provide an accurate picture when they are used on
populations from other cultures or minority groups. For example, such
tests do not accurately portray the true characteristics and abilities of
women, ethnic minorities, limited English speakers, and the physically
challenged. Sue (1998) bolstered this argument by pointing out that on a
speed test that has been developed in English, a non-English speaker will
take more time and will be at disadvantage than a person having English
as the native language. Moreover, their different experiential background
will also contribute to their performance on these tests.
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In fact, Mensh and Mensh (1991) pointed out that results from even a Multicultural Assessment – I
standardized test can enhance the social, economic, and political hurdles
for racial and ethnic minorities. Considering such an encompassing and
long-lasting impact of the results of such testing practices, it is important
to use culturally appropriate tests. Darling-Hammond (2004b) reported
that in 1997-98, more than 20,000 students were tested on standardized
tests pertaining to grades 3,6, and 8 and were found to be unfit to be
promoted to the next grade. Retaining students in the same grade and not
promoting them contributed to their future academic failure and also led to
behavioural problems. Similarly, in another study, it was found that white
population and minority community students were taught different
curricula because standardized test scores showed that minority
community students were scoring low on those standardized tests. Many
psychologists and educationists pointed out that if a student, who has been
schooled in a vernacular medium or through lower quality schooling,
scores even mediocre score on a test, it should be taken as a sign of his
dedication to studies and high ability. But most of the standardized scores
do not reflect this triumph of such a student.
Another problem with standardized testing is that if a student belongs to a
group about which there is already a negative academic stereotype, that
student becomes vulnerable to wrong interpretation due to this negative
stereotype. For example, there is a negative academic stereotype about
women having low proficiency in mathematics or African Americans
having a low intellectual ability. In such cases, if the students are asked to
disclose their race, gender, or socioeconomic status before taking the test,
the negative academic stereotype becomes active and influences the
interpretation.
The multicultural assessment focuses on the evaluation of individuals,
taking into consideration their cultural context. Multicultural assessment
involves “a continuing and open-ended series of substantive and
methodological insertions and adaptations designed to mesh the process of
assessment and evaluation with the cultural characteristics of the group
[individual] being studied” (Padilla & Borsato, 2008). Assessment results
influence educational opportunities, diagnosis, and employment.
Therefore, culturally appropriate testing practices are critical given the
potentially important and long-term consequences for the examinee. Gray-
Little and Kaplan (1998) pointed out that many studies conducted to
investigate the psychiatric diagnosis of ethnic minorities showed that
psychiatrists and other mental health workers are often influenced by the
race and ethnicity of the client and make a biased clinical judgment while
making a prediction of diagnosis which is independent of symptoms.
Similarly, in forensic assessment, wrong interpretation of the test scores
can cost personal freedom and other legal liabilities to a person of a
minority culture. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to cultural
sensitivity in assessment.

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Multiculturalism Theory 5.2 CROSS-CULTURAL SENSITIVITY IN
ASSESSMENT: USING TESTS IN CULTURALLY
APPROPRIATE WAYS
5.2.1 What Is Culturally Sensitive Assessment?
Bringing cultural sensitivity to assessment is a complicated issue. A
common misnomer is that culture refers to only geographical, racial, and
ethnic differences only. In a multicultural society like America, cultural
differences also include factors such as English-language proficiency,
formal education, age of the migrants, generational status, for how long
that group has been residing in America, ethnic identity, and the degree of
acculturation, etc. (Sue, 1998).
Culturally sensitive assessment must ensure that while constructing new
tests or adapting the existing tests, determining the methods of
administering, scoring, and interpreting the results of these tests, one
should keep in mind the cultural characteristics of the targeted population
under investigation. All three components of an assessment are susceptible
to contamination through biases. For instance, in test construction, the test
items may be such that one cultural group has more advantages than the
other group. This was highlighted by Sternberg in the measurement of
intelligence. He pointed out that children raised in different cultures may
develop different competencies and cognitive abilities than children raised
in the dominant culture. So, to ensure equality in assessment, it is essential
to pay attention to the sociocultural context. Moreover, in the case of
norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests, it is essential to see
that not only norms are recent but also that they are representative of the
cultural values of the population being tested. Even if the test is well
constructed, biases can occur at the time of test administration. These
biases can take place due to the formatting of the test, the mode of test
administration, or the personality of the tester, which may favour one
group of test takers over another. The bias can also be due to the wrong
application of the test. For instance, to select a candidate for a job, a test
may be used that does not represent the tasks to be performed on the job.
The outcome of such a bias in the selection process will be unfair
treatment and unequal opportunity or access for some groups.
The problem of unfairness in assessment is becoming more and more
acute as the school-age migration population is rapidly increasing in
developed countries. It is also becoming a cause for concern in developing
countries where the population belonging to lower socioeconomic strata
and having limited or no English proficiency is aspiring to enter formal
education, where the medium of instruction is English. So, there is a need
to lay down the guidelines for not only the administration of the tests but
also for selecting appropriate tests that are not racially and culturally
discriminatory.

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5.2.2 Concerns in culturally sensitive: Multicultural Assessment – I

According to The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct

(American Psychological Association [APA], 1992), test developers must
give detailed information about the limitations of the test for the
individuals and the groups being tested. This aspect becomes all the more
important if the outcome of these tests is going to influence the social
policies or will prove to be disadvantageous to a particular age group,
gender, ethnic or socioeconomic group, etc. Gregory and Lee (1986)
pointed out that examiners should not only be careful about choosing an
appropriate test but also ensure that the test does not appear to be
discriminatory in either administration or interpretation too. When
choosing a test to be administered to the migration population, it is
important for test users to consider migrants‟ native language, immigration
information, educational status, and cultural background into account.
This information will indicate the migrant populations‟ proficiency in
language and culture related to the test.
5.2.3 Translation and Adaptation of Tests:
Many research studies have shown that test scores of those having English
as their mother tongue are far better than those who learn English as a
second language. However, this gap in their performance reduces
significantly when the language demand of the test items reduces. To
overcome this disparity and to reduce the language demand, many
researchers resort to translating an English instrument into another
language. But this practice is also not error-free. Inadequately translated
and adapted tests from one source language to another language can
greatly compromise the accuracy of the results. Abedi et.al. (2004) pointed
out that while translating a test from one language to another, the biggest
challenge is to maintain the exact equivalence of the construct being
measured.
Geisinger (1994) has given certain guidelines for the translation and
adaptation of a test from one language and culture to another language and
culture. These guidelines are:
• Individuals translating or adapting an assessment instrument should
not only be fluent in the two languages, but also fully knowledgeable
about both cultures, the content that the instrument purports to assess,
and the uses to which the instrument will be put.
• A group of individuals who meet the same rigorous requirements as
the translators should review the quality of the translation or
adaptation, and any recommendations for change should be
incorporated subsequently.
• The instrument should be pilot- and field-tested.
• Scores must be standardized and necessary validation research
conducted.

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Multiculturalism Theory If we follow these guidelines strictly, it will be apparent that translating an
instrument is not an easy job and it takes lots of time. The complexity of
translating an instrument becomes more profound because first of all,
directions given in the test are too technical or „foreign‟ to allow exact
translation. Secondly, it has been noticed that translations produced by
practitioners do not have the same meanings as the original test language
and cannot be translated back in exact terms. Thirdly, the psychological
construct that a test is measuring may be specific to one particular culture
and may not be available in the culture of the test taker. In other words, it
may not be a universal psychological construct. For example, in the case
of achievement tests, the content of the test can differ significantly from
one culture to another culture or from one language to another language.
Auchter and Stansfield (1997) reported that it was difficult to translate an
achievement test from the English language to the Spanish language due
to certain idiomatic expressions used in the English version that did not
have equivalent expressions in the Spanish language.
Another problem can be that the test taker‟s attitude towards test
directions and procedures may differ from culture to culture. Furthermore,
Brislin (1970) pointed out that there are no standardized translation
procedures developed so far that can systematically and objectively assess
the equivalence of psychological construct and its translation through
different languages and cultures. Even if a psychologist has been careful in
translating an instrument and has taken all precautions, it is important to
have a pretest or pilot study test of the translated test to find out the
undetected errors that might have cropped in. So, back translation and a
pilot study of the translated instrument is the bare minimum requirement
for having a good quality translation of an instrument. Due to all these
complexities in translation and the cost and time involved in properly
translating an English test into another language is done only when there is
a sufficiently large number of non-English speaking test takers belonging
to a specific culture.
Werner and Campbell (1970) suggested that to have error free translation
of the original psychological instrument, the researcher must have a team
of researchers having expert knowledge of both the topic under study and
should be indigenous to the culture of the target population under study.
Brislin (1980) listed out 12 guidelines for developing psychological
instruments that can lead to good-quality translation. These are –
1. Short, simple sentences of not more than 16 words should be used.
2. Active voice instead of passive voice should be used.
3. Use nouns repeatedly instead of using pronouns.
4. Metaphors and colloquialisms should be avoided as such phrases are
not likely to have equivalents in the target language.
5. The subjunctive mood should be avoided (that is, expressing wishes,
proposals, suggestions, or imagined situations, e.g., "I wish I could

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 keep studying psychology all day.". So, these are verb forms with Multicultural Assessment – I
could or would).
6. In single-country research, ensure to provide sentences that give
context for important ideas and redundancy.
7. Avoid adverbs and prepositions giving directions about where or
when (e.g., frequently, beyond, around).
8. As far as possible avoid possessive forms.
9. Use specific rather than general terms (e.g., the specific animal‟s
name, such as cows, chickens, or pigs, rather than the general term
such as livestock).
10. Avoid vague words (such as probably, frequently) about an event or
thing.
11. As far as possible, use words that the translators are familiar with.
12. Avoid sentences with two different verbs if the verbs suggest two
different actions.

5.2.4 Recommendations for Nonbiased Assessment Practices:

By now it is obvious that, right from the beginning, an assessment that is
contaminated with cultural biases is one of the causes of constant error in
making inferences about the members of a community that is culturally
different from the one making inferences. Researchers have been aware of
this source of error and have been applying various strategies to reduce or
eliminate it. For example, researchers have been trying to develop culture-
fair tests in which cultural and verbal parts of testing are reduced.
Similarly, they have been also developing different norms for different
cultural groups. For instance, Mercer (1979) developed the System of
Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) to ensure that members of
the non-dominant sociocultural group do not get adversely affected by
discrimination that takes place due to misinterpretation of their test scores.
Though he propagated that there should be different norms for different
groups, and developed techniques to develop differentiated norms, it was
later rejected by civil rights legislation.
Even if group-adjusted norms are developed, it has been observed that
very few psychologists have the knowledge and expertise of ensuring that
cultural bias does not creep in when they are conducting assessments of
people belonging to a minority community or different backgrounds. It has
been observed that school psychologists make better decisions than other
psychologists when choosing an appropriate and equitable test to be
administered to students as they are more familiar with the students and
their backgrounds. (Lam,1993).
Many research studies in the educational field, that have been conducted
on a minority population, have resulted in wrong interpretations of the
results. These wrong interpretations have been due to an inherent bias in
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Multiculturalism Theory the paradigms of these studies. Most of these studies have been
comparative studies that have compared people belonging to different
cultures, social classes, gender, or language groups. However, the
response pattern of the respondents to questions in an interview or in a
questionnaire depends upon their cultural background. This has been
amply demonstrated by Sternberg‟s research on intelligence. It is
important to involve members of the community (on whom the study will
be conducted) in designing the questionnaire for the survey or even for an
interview. They should be involved not only in determining the question
items but also in the mode of administration, interpretation, and
development of the norms.
Instead of conducting comparative studies, the researchers should study
any particular ethnic group for its own sake and not just compare it with
the dominant culture group or any other group. While conducting
comparative studies, the researchers must ensure that the instrument that
they are using is not biased and does not inadvertently favour any specific
group over another group.
The researchers conducting research in the educational field must be
careful while conducting research on a minority group. They need to
ensure that they are not concentrating on such groups‟ failures in the
educational system. Instead, they should be looking at the ways and means
of ensuring the success of such minority groups, no matter what the tasks
are and whatever the levels of difficulty of doing these tasks are.
They should also ensure that their instruments can sufficiently assess the
changes in behavior or learning taking place due to the treatment or
educational programs. In other words, the instrument should be reliable
enough to give proper pretest and posttest scores.
The researchers who are designing the questionnaires and later on the test
users must keep in mind that test performance gets impacted by inequality
in educational opportunity, parents' educational attainment, cultural
orientation, language spoken at home, proficiency in English, socialization
experiences, family structure and dynamics, family income, and level of
motivation to do well. Being aware of such confounding factors that can
influence the test performance will help them in choosing an appropriate
test and later on in the appropriate interpretation of the scores.
Most psychometric tests are constructed by taking an archetypal middle-
class sample. The test administrators who are aware of and are at ease with
the traditional customs and communicative styles of those who do not
belong to a typical middle class will have high cross-cultural assessment
competency. The test administrator can either put in an effort to increase
his own cross-cultural competencies or he can involve a minority
community member in choosing an appropriate test to be used in that
minority group. This will help in building up a rapport with that minority
group and enhancing trust in the testing procedure. With an appropriate
instrument used, the results given by the minority group will also be more
authentic which will help in making proper decisions.

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To ensure that cultural biases are kept at the bay, it is essential that more Multicultural Assessment – I
and more qualified minority psychologists are given training in test
construction and psychometric testing. Simultaneously, concentrated
efforts should be made to increase the cultural sensitivity of the
psychologists from the dominant culture and they must be made aware of
the role of cultural biases in erroneous interpretations of the tests.

5.3 SUMMARY
Assessment is an integral part of career counselling, clinical treatments
and of education. Psychologists and counsellors use standardized tests to
do assessment. However, one the most glaring problem is that most of the
standardized tests are standardized on white population in America. Their
use creates more social, economic and political problems for ethnic
minorities and for migrants instead of helping them.
Very often the diagnose given by mental health workers and psychiatrists
for a client belonging to minority community is influenced by their own
prejudice and stereotypes about that community. To be impartial and
accurate it is important for mental health workers and psychiatrists to be
culturally sensitive. Even the researchers who are developing new tests
must be culturally sensitive while determining the question items,
administration, scoring and determining the norms of a new test.
It has also been found that subjects who have English as their mother
tongue get better scores on the tests than those who either do not have
proficiency in English language or use English as their second language.
In fact it has been found that those subjects who use English as their
primary language but their parents speak another native language, also do
not perform as well as those having English as native language. Very often
it is necessary to translate or adapt a standardized test to suit a particular
culture. In translation and adaptation of a test one needs to keep in mind
that translator should be fluent in both languages- English and the
language in which it is being translated. Then it should be reviewed by
another set of people who also have expertise in both the languages. The
third step is to back translate the new instrument and test it through pilot
study. Then norms need to be developed appropriate to the specific
cultural group for which it is being developed. Brislin has given 12
guidelines for developing a test that can lead to good translation.
It is recommended to use Mercer‟s (1979) System of Multicultural
Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) to ensure that members of non-dominant
sociocultural group does not get adversely affected by discrimination that
takes place due to misinterpretation of their test scores. Psychologists must
have the knowledge and expertise of ensuring that cultural bias does not
creep in when they are conducting assessment of people belonging to
minority community or different backgrounds. It is also recommended that
psychologists should avoid conducting comparative studies where they
compare one ethnic group with dominant cultural group. Furthermore, it is
recommended that more and more qualified minority psychologists are
given training in test construction and psychometric testing.
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Multiculturalism Theory

5.4 QUESTIONS
1) What is meant by cultural sensitivity and what is its importance in
assessment.
2) What are the complex issues in translation and adaptation of tests and
what precautions can be taken?
3) What will you recommend to do nonbiased assessment?

5.5 REFERENCES
 Elrich, H. (2003). The Social Psychology of Prejudice: A systematic
Theoretical Review and Propositional Inventory of the American.
New York, Wiley.
 Gamst, G.C., Liang, C.T.H., Der‐ Karabetian, A. (2011). Handbook
of Multicultural Measures, La Verne: SAGE
 Garrett McAulifee & Associates (2008). Culturally Alert Counselling:
A Comprehensive Introduction, Sage Publications.
 Sue, D.W., Sue, D. (2012). Counselling The Culturally Diverse:
Theory and Practice (6th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Sue, Sue D.W. (2006) Multicultural Competencies: Individual and
Organizational Development, Sage Publication, New Delhi.

*****

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 6
MULTICULTURAL ASSESSMENT – II
Unit Structure
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Ethical Issues in multicultural assessment
6.3 Writing psychological and educational reports for culturally and
linguistically diverse client
6.4 Summary
6.5 Questions
6.6 References

6.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you will be able to understand
 Ethical issues that plague multicultural assessment
 Concerns to be addressed while writing a psychological and
educational reports for culturally and linguistically diverse client

6.1 INTRODUCTION
Psychological assessment is a very complicated decision-making process
that gets influenced by various sociocultural factors. It poses many ethical
challenges and these challenges become more acute, especially in the case
of multicultural assessment. Many times, the request for a psychological
assessment of an individual, comes from another person or institute, and
not from the person undergoing the assessment. The referring authority
may use the results of the assessment for making decisions about
academic performance, disability status, clinical diagnosis, etc. Thus,
psychological assessment can have a profound impact on the lives of
people who had been subjected to psychological assessment. For example,
studies have shown that for a long time in the past, in America, very
frequently, African American patients were wrongly diagnosed with
schizophrenia instead of being diagnosed with affective disorders. Ridley
(2005) termed it a race-based misdiagnosis.
It is the responsibility of psychologists to take utmost care and precaution
while doing the psychological assessment, especially when it involves
assessing people from diverse cultural backgrounds. If the psychologists
assessing subjects from another culture are not careful, there are chances
that they might commit the error of either overemphasizing or
underemphasizing the influence of subjects‘ cultural background on their
test performance or they may pay too much attention to a client‘s personal
unique lives experiences and ignore all other aspects that may have
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Multiculturalism Theory influenced his test performance. Ethically, it is important for an assessor to
consider an assessee‘s sociocultural environment as well as his personal
lived unique experiences while making a judgment about that person.
Especially in the case of multicultural assessment, it is important that
psychologists pay attention to ethical considerations, even before starting
the assessment, during the assessment, and even after the assessment is
over and they have to submit the report.
For instance, to assess a person from another culture, they need to choose
a culturally suitable instrument and use norms that are appropriate for that
cultural group. In case, they have to use interpreters, they need to take
informed consent from the client, and make sure that the interpreter is a
trained one and is not only proficient in both languages but is also well
versed with both cultures – the one in which the original instrument was
constructed and the other one in which the translated version of the test
will be used. Psychologists also need to be sensitive to the fact that a
person‘s behavior is influenced not only by his sociocultural environment
but from his own subjective experiences in that social environment. While
determining the meaning of his responses and interpreting the scores, the
psychologists should be able to pay attention to the client‘s subjective
experiences as well as their interaction with the sociocultural environment.
There are many such ethical considerations that a psychologist must
adhere to. Let us look at some of them in detail

6.2 ETHICAL ISSUES IN MULTICULTURAL

ASSESSMENT
The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct [APA Ethics
Code] (APA, 2002) gives guidelines to be followed by psychologists
while fulfilling their professional roles as psychologists. This will include
their professional activities in clinical, counseling, and school settings; in
research, teaching, policy development, social intervention, development
of assessment instruments and conducting assessments, educational
counseling, organizational consulting, forensic activities, program design,
and evaluation, etc. APA Ethics Code has five general principles (A-E)
and certain Ethical Standards specified. These five general principles are
not obligatory but desirable for high ethical conduct. Let us understand
Principle E out of these five principles, which holds importance in the
assessment process.
Principle E: Respect for People‘s Rights and Dignity
Out of these five principles, principle E states that psychologists must
have respect for people‘s rights and dignity. They must respect the right to
privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination. They must put in extra
effort to safeguard such right especially people from the minority
community or those who are vulnerable and may not be able to or allowed
to make independent decisions about themselves. While working with a
client, psychologists must be sensitive to and respectful of cultural,
individual, and role differences, including those based on age, gender,

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gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual Multicultural Assessment – II
orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status.
There are ten Ethical standards given in APA Ethics Code (2002). It is
compulsory for psychologists to adhere to these Ethical Standards.

Competence:
The second ethical standard deals with competence. It states in 2.01
ethical standard (a) that psychologists should render their services, and
indulge in teaching and research with only that population and only in
those areas where they have competence in terms of their education,
training, supervised experience, consultation, study, or professional
experience.
They should have scientific or professional knowledge of factors related to
age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin,
religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, or socioeconomic status.
If they don‘t have that competence, then they should undergo relevant
education, and training and gain experience before rendering their services
in that area.
For maintaining high ethical standards in psychological assessment, they
must pay attention to factors such as the selection of culturally appropriate
tests, their own competence to administer and interpret the test, the need
for translation, and adaptation of the test.

Multicultural Competence:
In the context of multicultural assessment, competence is defined as "the
ability and committed intention to consider cultural data in order to
formulate accurate, comprehensive, and impartial case conceptualizations"
(Ridley et al., 2001).‖
The need to have multicultural competence was highlighted by Fischer
and Chambers (2003). They found that many psychologists do not have
competence in adjudging client acculturation, while using assessment
tools and interpreting the results they did not take into account the culture
of the client. They could not resolve multicultural predicaments and
unintentionally indulged in racism, chose culturally inappropriate tools,
and misinterpreted culturally specific behaviors that were different from
their own culture.
The Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice,
and Organizational Change for Psychologists [Multicultural Guidelines]
(APA, 2003) aimed to promote multicultural competence by encouraging
them to realize that they are also cultural beings, influenced by their own
cultural norms. There is a high possibility of their own beliefs and
attitudes that are shaped by their own culture may have an adverse impact
on their perception and interaction with people from other cultures. In
nutshell, they must develop cultural sensitivity. Enhanced self-awareness
will reduce their prejudices and biases and will break their stereotypes of

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Multiculturalism Theory other groups. With increased awareness of multicultural distinctions,
psychologists will be able to respect cultural diversity more and will have
more competence in multicultural assessment.
Language and Competence in Assessment Administration:
Studies have shown that if there is a difference in the languages of the
assessor and assessee, it will adversely affect the accuracy of the
assessment process. Neither the client will be able to give accurate
information, nor the psychologist will be able to draw meaningful
information from the client. However, this problem can be circumvented
to a great extent if the psychologist uses the services of a well-trained
interpreter. If the psychologist does not have the required language
competency and if it is not possible to hire a well-trained interpreter, then
the psychologist should refer the case to an appropriate referral.
In 2015, it was felt that there is a need to revise Multicultural Guidelines
and divide them into two parts – one that covers universal factors that are
applicable across various identity groups, for example, factors such as age,
disability, race, ethnicity, gender, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation
and gender diversity, social class, language, immigration status. The
second part of the multicultural guidelines covers race/ethnicity-related
developments in research that have taken place after the 2002
Multicultural Guidelines were adopted.

Assessment Tool Selection:

For most of the standardized psychological instruments, the norms are
developed by taking white, middle-class population, and mostly Western
approaches to assessment are used. Most of these standardized tools are
culture-specific and suitable for European Americans, but they are
wrongly assumed to be suitable for all cultures. It will be unethical and the
results will be inaccurate if such standardized instruments, which are so
culture-specific, are used to assess the multicultural population.
Psychologists must use instruments that have metric equivalence and
cross–cultural validity. Metric equivalence will facilitate a direct
comparison of the scores across cultures and cross-cultural construct
validity will facilitate the empirical measurement of the construct, across
the culture.
Padilla (2001) pointed out that very often assessment instruments selected
by the psychologist fail to identify cultural bound symptoms of a problem.
For example, very often psychopathological symptoms reported by the
immigrant population are connected to acculturative stress. For example,
in one of the research studies conducted on Latino immigrants, there was a
predominant prevalence of a folk illness called ―susto‖ – having symptoms
of fright disorder that takes place due to traumatic experiences. But
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory II (MMPI-II) failed to report
this illness.

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Therefore, it was suggested that a psychologist must collect Multicultural Assessment – II
multidimensional information through a cultural measurement before
starting the actual assessment process. In other words, the psychologist
must collect information about culture-specific attitudes and values,
socioeconomic status, immigration status, and language proficiency and
preferences of the ethnic minorities. One can use informal cultural
orientation interviews to support the formal psychological assessment
process. Through such interviews, the psychologist can collect information
about family, culture-specific psychopathologies and about the culture of
that ethnic minority group in general.

Adaptation and Translation of Assessment Measures:

APA Ethics Code suggests that the assessment should take place in the
participants‘ preferred language. To assess a person whose mother tongue
is not English, the psychologist will have to use instruments that are
translated into the subject‘s primary language. However, translating an
instrument into another language is not a simple task. It is a lengthy and
costly process and a psychologist need to take utmost precautions to
ensure that the translated instrument is not faulty.
First of all, even before getting an instrument translated into another
language, psychologists need to see whether that instrument takes into
account the social-cultural factors that shape the thinking of the
respondents, that is, whether it has cultural validity or not. There might be
certain constructs in the dominant culture that are not available in other
cultures. Secondly, they also need to ensure translation validity. Very
often, instruments constructed in English have many technical words that
are difficult to be translated into other languages.
To ensure cultural and translation validity, it is imperative for a
psychologist to follow all guidelines rigorously. A translated version of a
test will have high translation validity if the original instrument and the
translated version of that test are equivalent in linguistic, functional,
cultural, and metric equivalences to guard against validity threat (Pena,
2007).

Administration/Application of Assessment Techniques:

Many psychologists, especially European American psychologists, assume
that the assessee will undergo psychological assessment without any
hesitation or apprehensions. But people from non-European American
cultures may consider this assumption to be rude and intruding on their
privacy and therefore may not cooperate with the psychologist. The
psychologist interacting with people from diverse cultures must adapt his
way of approaching the client and communication style as per the culture
of the client. Right from the beginning, he must put in the effort to develop
a relationship where the client can trust him, develops a positive attitude
toward the psychological assessment, and is willing to cooperate with the
psychologist. To develop such a trustworthy relationship, the psychologist
should clarify any doubts that an assessee has, patiently take care of any
apprehensions, and only when the assessee voluntarily gives informed
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Multiculturalism Theory consent, he should administer the test to him. APA Ethical Code (2002)
specifies that the psychologist must ensure that the assessee is capable of
giving informed consent and is willing to give such consent. The assessee
should be provided detailed information about the psychological
instrument and assessment, either in writing or orally in the language of
the participant‘s choice. The language should be very simple language
having no or minimum technical words.
They should be given detailed information about -
• the aim, nature, method, and duration of the test,
• any potential discomfort or risk involved in participating in the
assessment, as well as the potential usefulness of that assessment
• The situations in which there will be restrictions on them during the
assessment
They should also be assured about|:
• the confidentiality of their data but at the same time, they should also
be told about the limitations or conditions of confidentiality,
• their right to either accept or reject to participate
• their right to get feedback or results of the assessment
The assessor should ensure that participants have clearly understood all
terms and conditions, had sufficient time and opportunity to ponder over
that information, and are giving voluntary informed consent to participate
in the assessment procedure. In case, the psychologist is dealing with
participants from a collectivist culture, he should keep in mind the cultural
norms and be ready to involve other members of the participant‘s family
in getting informed consent. The assessor must take care to use norms that
are relevant to the ethnic group, from which the participant is taken. The
methodology of administering the test also should be chosen according to
the demographic characteristics of the participants. While assessing
participants from diverse cultures, it is desirable to use mixed methods of
assessment.

Interpretation and Release of Assessment Results:

According to the APA Ethics Code of 2002, Standard 2.05, the
psychologist should choose interpreters who are competent and do not
have multiple relationships with the participants.
As per Standard 9.03, the psychologist must take permission from the
participant to use an identified interpreter. While reporting the assessment
results, giving any recommendations, or giving forensic testimony, the
psychologist must acknowledge the limitations of the data.

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Some of the core guidelines given for using the interpreter are - Multicultural Assessment – II

1. Only bilingual - bicultural highly trained and competent interpreters

should be used.
2. Even when the interpreter is engaged with the client, the psychologist
should pay attention to nonverbal cues and use that information later
while dealing with the client.
3. Psychologist must remember that his primary contact must be with the
client and not with the interpreter.
4. The psychologist must keep in mind the applicable cultural norms
(e.g. eye contact, touch, personal space requirements, etc.) of the
client while interacting with him.
5. There should be minimum unsupervised contact between the
interpreter and the client.
6. The psychologist should not have any side conversation with the
interpreter
7. Same interpreter should be used throughout the assessment process.
8. While talking to the client, the psychologist should maintain eye
contact with the client and not with the interpreter.
While interpreting the results of the assessment, the psychologist must
ensure that this interpretation should be as per the culture of the client. He
should also ensure that interpretation does not carry any negative bias in
the assessment results, especially if the standardized instrument is used,
due to the potential influence of environmental stressors on the
performance of the client. Finally, psychologists must be conscious of the
‗consequential validity‘ of the assessment, i.e., they must be aware of the
potential positive or negative social impact of their assessment results.
They must be conscious of the fact that misdiagnosis or any kind of
labelling can have far-reaching harmful effects on participants. While
dealing with clients from a collectivist culture, the psychologist must share
the assessment feedback and plan of treatment for the client with
significant others from his family, but it should be done only after taking
consent from the client.

6.3 WRITING PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL

REPORTS FOR CULTURALLY AND
LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE CLIENT
A psychoeducational report can be defined as a systematic, structured,
broad, consolidated written record of results of psychological and/or
educational assessment. This report is written in a different manner
depending on the purpose of its use.
While writing reports for culturally and linguistically diverse clients,
Rogers et.al. (1999) suggested that school psychologists should be well
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Multiculturalism Theory versed with local and state laws, immigration and naturalization laws, civil
rights related to educational services, and bilingual and ESL program
legislation.
In the Professional Conduct Manual prepared by the National Association
of School Psychologists (NASP) (2000), culturally diverse populations
Practice Guideline 5 says:
―School psychologists have the sensitivity, knowledge, and skills to work
with individuals and groups with a diverse range of strengths and needs
from a variety of racial, cultural, ethnic, experiential, and linguistic
backgrounds. School psychologists incorporate their understanding of the
influence of culture, background, and individual learning characteristics
when designing and implementing interventions to achieve learning and
behavioral outcomes.‖
In the same Manual, Section IV: Professional Practices—General
Principles; D: Reporting Data and Conference Results, point 3, p. 28,
states the guideline for writing psychological reports as
―School psychologists prepare written reports in such form and style that
the recipient of the report will be able to assist the child or other clients.
Reports should emphasize recommendations and interpretations; unedited
computer-generated reports, pre-printed ―check-off‖ or ―fill-in-the-blank‖
reports, and reports that present only test scores or global statements
regarding eligibility for special education without specific
recommendations for intervention are seldom useful. Reports should
include an appraisal of the degree of confidence that could be assigned to
the information.‖
It is suggested that before signing the reports, school psychologists must
review their reports for accuracy.
Apart from giving these guidelines, NASP‘s standards recommend the
following five areas of sound psychological assessment that should be
adhered to, so as to ensure that ethical and legal concerns have been
respected -
Multifaceted—it should ensure the use of multiple methods of assessment
to avoid a single test score being used as the sole basis for decision-
making
Comprehensive—assessments should cover all areas of the child‘s
difficulties (e.g., health, vision, hearing, social/emotional functioning,
intellectual abilities, educational achievement, communication skills, and
motor abilities);
Fair—while selecting assessment instruments and procedures, the
assessor must take into consideration age, gender, native language,
socioeconomic status, disabilities, and cultural and ethnic background.
Especially in the case of a child with a disability, appropriate assessment

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procedures must be selected in order to ensure that cognitive ability, Multicultural Assessment – II
educational achievement, and adaptive behavior are fairly evaluated.
Students with limited English proficiency (LEP) must be tested for
language proficiency so that appropriate instruments can be selected to test
them and proper interpretation can be made keeping their limitations in
mind.
Valid—the validity of the test utilized should be assured by following the
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, &
NCME, 1999). A summary of the standards indicates that school
psychologists are ethically responsible for evaluating the technical
standards (validity, reliability, standardization norms) of the tests they use,
so as to guarantee that they are valid for their intended purposes.
Practice Implications of Writing Psycho-Educational Reports for CLD
Students
There are many ways of conducting assessments of CLD (culturally and
linguistically diverse) students. While writing a psycho-educational report
for CLD students, the assessor has to incorporate students‘ cultural, racial,
and experiential background, the dominant language and the second
language acquired, acculturation stages, educational qualifications,
community, and home background, etc. This information is vital for the
report because assessment and report writing are interconnected. If this
background information is not collected and reported in the report, it will
be just a traditional report.
The traditional report merely describes the personal history or identifying
information of the student, reasons for referral, the tool used for
assessment, observations, clinical impressions and results of the
quantitative measurement, and specific recommendations. However,
Sattler (2001) highlighted that a psychoeducational report has many
objectives and for writing a fair ethical report, these objectives must be
kept in mind. Some of these objectives are -
1. It is important to give the referral source and other relevant authorities
the full information about the background in terms of developmental,
medical, intellectual, social, cultural, and educational history
background, language, and environmental or political influencers.
While reporting cultural background, the assessor should include
information about the racial or biracial identity, religious or traditional
beliefs, socioeconomic status, health practices, immigration status,
acculturation stage of the student as well as the parents, and also the
disciplinary norms practiced at the home of the students. The assessor
should be able to differentiate a language disorder from second
language acquisition developmental stages.
2. The report should cover CLD students‘ interpersonal skills,
intellectual and cognitive abilities, motor skills, and personality, as
assessed at present.

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Multiculturalism Theory 3. The report should have enough information about the burden on the
social, emotional, and intellectual development of the CLD child who
needs to adjust to the second culture and learn a second language. The
level of their language proficiency in a second language should be
mentioned in the report.
4. All assessment results should be reported in a culturally sensitive
manner.
5. The report should be written in such a manner that it can be used to
form clinical hypotheses, and relevant intervention programs, and can
be a base for evaluation and further research. For academicians, it
should serve as a guide to CLD students‘ academic strengths and
weaknesses.
6. One should report the quantitative tools and qualitative techniques, if
any, used to measure language dominance or bilingualism, especially
for students who are not very proficient in their native language.
7. If any modification was done to the standardized tool or any other
kind of adjustments/deviations were used, that also should be
reported. If the scores obtained by CLD students were interpreted
against the norms that were not standardized on the CLD student
population, then results should be described in a qualitative manner
too.
8. Pertinent comparison group should be used to interpret the assessment
of CLD students.
9. While reporting on the cognitive abilities of the CLD student, the
assessor must give an estimate of the intellectual functioning of the
child after making sure that biases in testing have been removed or
adjusted for. If intelligence has been assessed by using alternative
methods or qualitative methods it should be reported accordingly, for
example, if intelligence is measured in terms of musical, bodily-
kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal abilities, etc. The
qualitative methods used to assess intelligence in the non-
conventional method can include performance-based assessment,
functional assessment, dynamic assessment, and/or developmental
assessment.
10. The report should also include the results of the learning ecology
assessment. This assessment can be done by following steps -
(a) review of educational records;
(b) observation of the student during class instruction, as well as an
examination of the content of the instruction;
(c) suitability of the curriculum;
(d) evaluation of the fit between the student and the curriculum with
consideration of the student‘s needs;
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(e) deductions made from parent and teacher interviews; and Multicultural Assessment – II

(f) review of medical records (Ortiz, 2002).

11. The clinical impression given in the report should actually reflect the
true personality and behavior of the CLD child as per his culture and
ethnicity.
12. The report should include the results of the ecological assessment of
the CLD child, indicating the child‘s functioning within his own
family and community.
13. If the assessor has used an interpreter, then the details of the
interpreter‘s training and credentials as well as limitation must be
mentioned.
14. If a translated version of any test is used, then it should be highlighted
that the psychometric properties of the original non-translated test and
the psychometric properties of the translated version of that test are
not the same.
Cross-Cultural Competencies Relevant to Report Writing
Multicultural assessment includes many areas of competencies such as -
(a) clinical interviewing and assessment of individuals from diverse
backgrounds;
(b) maintaining culturally centered ethics in testing;
(c) expertise in cultural identity and acculturation;
(d) appropriate selection of assessment instruments; and
(e) knowledge of diagnosing individuals from diverse cultures.
Cross-cultural practices also include having knowledge and skills about
choosing the interventions and recommendations that are most relevant to
the specific culture. Report writing should also follow the same
competencies as both assessment and report writing are interconnected. As
there are no specific guidelines about the cross-cultural competencies
necessary for report writing, one can differentiate the competencies
needed for cross-cultural report writing by looking at the culturally
competent practice in assessment described by the National Association of
School Psychologists (NASP).

Standard III. Psychoeducational Assessment:

1. Knowledge and skills in assessing CLD students, include variables
such as environment, social issues, language development, second
language acquisition, acculturation, educational history, quality of the
educational program, SES and racism.

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Multiculturalism Theory 2. One needs to understand that normed tests may not be a valid measure
for English Language Learners (ELLs) due to the inappropriateness of
norms, scores reflecting English proficiency, product as opposed to
process orientation, fairness of content, and differences in educational
background, acculturation, and economic situation; need to be
familiar with second language acquisition stages; cultural variables
that influence the results of an assessment; use of translators.

6.4 SUMMARY
Psychological assessment can have profound impact on the lives of people
who had been subjected to psychological assessment. Therefore, it is
necessary for psychologists to take utmost care and precaution while doing
psychological assessment, especially when it involves assessing people
from diverse cultural backgrounds. Ethically, it is important for an
assessor to consider an assessee‘s sociocultural environment as well as his
personal lived unique experiences while making a judgment about that
person.
The assessors must choose a culturally suitable instrument, and use norms
that are appropriate for that cultural group. In case, they have to use
interpreters, they need to take informed consent from the client, make sure
that interpreter is a trained one and has not only proficiency in both the
languages but is also well versed with both cultures.
They must respect clients‘ cultural, individual, and role differences
including those based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity,
culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language,
and socioeconomic status. They should have scientific or professional
knowledge of factors related to age, gender, gender identity, race,
ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability,
language, or socioeconomic status. They should not indulge in racism
even unintentionally. If the psychologist does not have required language
competency and if it is not possible to hire a well-trained interpreter, then
psychologist should refer the case to an appropriate referral. The
psychologists must use instruments that have metric equivalence and cross
– cultural validity. Even before getting an instrument translated in another
language, the psychologists needs to see whether that instrument takes into
account the social cultural factors that shape the thinking of the
respondents. The psychologist interacting with people from diverse
cultures must adapt his way of approaching the client and communication
style as per the culture of the client. The psychologist must take
permission from the participant to use an identified interpreter, if
interpreter is needed. While writing a psychoeducational report, a school
psychologist must keep in mind certain guidelines such as , in his report,
he must give full information about the background in terms of
developmental, medical, intellectual, social, cultural and educational
history background, language and environmental or political influencers,
racial or biracial identity, religious or traditional beliefs, socioeconomic
status, health practices , immigration status, acculturation stage of the
student as well as the parents and also the disciplinary norms practiced at
72
home of the students. It should also cover students‘ interpersonal skills, Multicultural Assessment – II
intellectual and cognitive abilities, motor skills, and personality, as
assessed at present. He should also mention the tools used to do
assessment as well as any modification done to the tools, any translations
done, interpreter used, etc. The report should reflect the true personality
and behavior of the CLD child as per his culture and ethnicity.

6.5 QUESTIONS
1. Describe the various issues in multicultural assessment.
2. Discuss writing psychological and educational reports for culturally
and linguistically diverse client.
3. What are the practice implications of writing psycho-educational
reports for CLD students?

4. Write short notes on:

a) Multicultural competence
b) Language and competence in assessment administration
c) Assessment tool selection
d) Adaptation and translation of assessment measures
e) Administration/applications of assessment techniques
f) Interpretation and release of assessment results
g) Cross-cultural competencies relevant to report writing

6.6 REFERENCES
 Elrich, H. (2003). The Social Psychology of Prejudice: A systematic
Theoretical Review and Propositional Inventory of the American.
New York, Wiley.
 Gamst, G.C., Liang, C.T.H., Der‐ Karabetian, A. (2011). Handbook
of Multicultural Measures, La Verne: SAGE
 Garrett McAulifee & Associates (2008). Culturally Alert Counselling:
A Comprehensive Introduction, Sage Publications.
 Sue, D.W., Sue, D. (2012). Counselling the Culturally Diverse:
Theory and Practice (6th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Sue, Sue D.W. (2006) Multicultural Competencies: Individual and
Organizational Development, Sage Publication, New Delhi.

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