False Diagnoses
We don’t always know ourselves the best, but should we really trust others in analyzing ourselves?
With the amount of personality assessments out there, there is no doubt human beings like to learn more about themselves, whether it’s for finding a suitable career or simply just for understanding one’s interaction habits within the society. These tests may be reliable as some might have the same result over years with multiple trials of the same assessment but are they valid at all?
Validity seems like a huge problem lots of people ignore, especially when the test is popular and trusted by many. Looking at the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965), we can see that all the questions are related to what the modern society would term as self-esteem but is the list of questions exhaustive enough for us to diagnose someone as having low or high self-esteem? Another problem with the assessment is that all the questions are very straightforward; this could lead to people lying to seem more likeable or unconsciously gear towards answers they aspire to be. The same problem can be seen in the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI). Personally. Every time I’ve taken the assessment, I’ve got a different result; on top of not having a high validity, I wouldn’t say it’s got a high reliability either.
Many of these kinds of tests can possibly obstruct one’s full potentials, just as what a false diagnosis of ADHD or low IQ can do. One part of diagnosing ADHD is for a professional to watch and interact with the patient. For the longest time, I’ve always heard of false diagnoses of ADHD. This could really change the way others treat them or mistreat them, making their learning environment different from others’. Maybe they had the potential to excel like others but what they’re constantly told/labeled can really change the amount of time and effort they put into themselves and others put into them. Such a labeling effect is also present in individuals diagnosed with low IQ, especially when they used to term them as “defective,” “morons” or “mentally retarded.” Those individuals could be gifted non-academically but often times they are just completely given up by parents and professionals.
From the different kinds of assessments discussed above — the Rosenberg self-esteems scale, the MBTI, or the diagnosis of ADHD by a professional — we can see that both self-report questionnaires and diagnoses by professionals can easily be quite flawed and result in a low validity. How do we actually combat this problem? Come up with less-straightforward questionnaires, train the professionals more rigorously, administer both when diagnosing someone or retire both of these methods and come up with a better one? Clearly, psychology is not at its fullest potential yet and hopefully, aspiring psychologists like us can help.
