Assessment Bias in Psychological Measurement of Ethnic Minorities

The issue of reliable and valid assessment of mental health status has been faced in clinical practice since the inception of efforts to evaluate intelligence, dating at least to Spearman's early theory of general intelligence. G-theory, as it became known, presumed that individuals possessed an overall intelligence, as opposed to more varied intelligences in diverse areas, as later expressed by Thurston (1927), and more recently rearticulated by Gardner (1983). Unfortunately, the history of efforts to develop psychological assessment instruments have been largely standardized on white, middle class males. Little or no consideration was given to the diversity of the U.S. population, such as regarding gender, race, and ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation and religiosity, or any other relevant demographic characteristic. Even within the U.S., various verbal expressions or idioms are uninterpretable by native born Americans, varied from north to south and coast to coast. Language and culture shape the veracity of psychological assessment and subsequent treatment intervention.