“Horses for Courses” is the best approach when considering if psychometrics should be applied instead of ecometrics and would have better results applied to specific case studies.
The service of a Psychiatrist is by no means devalued and most helpful in treating conditions with underlying Psychiatric tendencies. But when evaluating and improving circumstances, values, relationships, trauma, stress, and career ventures it is important to serve the client’s reality.
We are not all the same and Ecometrics endeavours to supply a personal/customized experience in adding value to the client’s life.
•Advantages and Disadvantages
PSYCHOMETRICS
Measurement of personality for diagnostic purposes
Do not always take the immediate effect of the environment on the functionality of the individual into consideration
Norm-referenced
Sample needs to be representative of the population
Biased towards populations groups
Norm-referenced scaling explained:
Use the average & standard deviation, minimum and maximum scores to establish the norm for the specific group E.g.:
– A total score between 15 & 45 with an average of 30 and a standard deviation of 5
– A respondent’s score is then compared to see how it differs from the average – with one, two, three, or more standard deviations.
The biggest argument against norms:
– The average of a population can’t be seen as the norm, otherwise, we expect all people to act mediocre
ECOMETRICS
It has to do with the quantification of the degree of balance between people and their environment
It, therefore, focuses on the way people adapt to their environments
Criterion-referenced scaling
Sample needs not to be representative of the population
Criterion-referenced scaling explained:
Specific attention is given to the unique score of a client on a scale with the unique problems that the client’s faces
Rather than comparing the score with a population mean score
Basic comparisons are made with criterion-referenced scaling with:
– The minimum possible score of 0
– The maximum possible score of 100
– The clinical cutting score
Clinical cutting scores are based on specific criteria determined by professionals to differentiate between people who (most likely) have a problem and those who don’t have a problem in a specific area
Criterion validity – how well a scale can differentiate between “healthy” and “unhealthy”
– Less judgmental – just want to establish if a person needs “help
•Supplied Information forms part of Perspektief Training Centre Study Material
