Discussions - Choose One

There are two whole group discussion questions below.  You are required to only respond to one discussion. 

Testing for Impaired Individuals (Whole Group)

Directions:

1. Be sure that you have completed the assigned readings.
    
2. In the Week 4: Testing for Impaired Individuals whole group discussion forum, post a repsonse to the following question by Saturday:

    

   • “What has been your personal experience working or knowing individuals with impairments? With that individual in mind, how will you ensure that you will have fair testing practices with your future impaired client?”
     
     If you have the ability to record your own voice responding to this post, please do so, and attach it to your post. If not, simply responding as usual is just fine. Some students find it helpful to write out the response before recording.
      
3. Revisit the posts throughout the week and read or listen to others' responses. Contribute at least two additional postings to the discussion by Monday.

-OR

TBeck Depression Inventory-II (Whole Group)

This says "whole group" but directions are written as if a team discussion.  Clarify - team or whole group? If whole group, need a WG discussion.  Also, if this is a choice, it would seem like the option above is a lot less work.
 

Introduction:

Being able to competently evaluate tests and assessments is a large responsibility of every counselor. Later in this course, you will be evaluating an instrument of your choice, but at this time you will be evaluating the Beck Depression Inventory II as a group and discussing the following reliability questions.

Directions:

1. Be sure that you have completed the assigned readings.
    
2. Review the Critique below.
    
3. The first person to visit your team forum on the Discussion tab should start a new thread called, Week 4: Beck Depression Inventory-II.
    
4. By Monday, each team member should post a response in your team discussion forum by responding to the questions in the Critique below.
    
5. Revisit the discussion forum multiple times throughout the week, discussing the problem and comparing your work to see that you have done it correctly within your team. Contribute at least two additional substantive postings that address the above prompts, but especially address Questions 5 and 6 by Monday. Together your team should come to a conclusion and agree on the results by the end of the week. Only the summary statement should be posted in the Whole Group area.
    
6. Revisit the group discussion forum at the end of the week and be sure to read the responses.

Critique: Beck Depression Inventory-II

You are a mental health counselor currently working in an outpatient counseling clinic with adult clients. You are considering whether or not to adopt the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) in your practice. Many of your clients seem to suffer from depression, and you think that using an instrument that specifically assesses depressive symptoms would help you in making an accurate diagnosis. You currently work 40 hours each week at the clinic and see about 20 clients each week for hour-long individual counseling sessions. The rest of your time is devoted to treatment planning, writing progress notes, staff meetings, and supervision.

Information about the BDI-II is located in Chapter 13. You are also provided with psychometric information below. After reviewing information about the BDI-II, answer the questions that follow.

Norm Group

Two samples were used to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the BDI-II:

1. A clinical sample of 500 individuals who sought outpatient therapy at one of four outpatient clinics on the U.S. east coast (two of which were located in urban areas, two in suburban areas). The sample consisted of 317 (63%) women and 183 (37%) men, ranged in age from 13 to 86 years, and the average age was 37.2 years. The sample consisted of four racial/ethnic groups: White (91%), African American (4%), Asian American (4%), and Hispanic (1%).
    
2. A non-clinical sample of 120 Canadian college students was used as a comparative “normal” group. It consisted of 67 (56%) women and 53 (44%) men, was described as “predominantly White,” and the average age of the sample was 19.58.

Reliability

Internal consistency: Analysis of internal consistency yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of .92 for the clinical sample and .93.

Test-Retest Reliability: Test-retest reliability was assessed over a one week interval among a sub-sample of 26 outpatients from one clinic site (r = .93).
 

Validity

Content Validity: BDI-II item content was designed to be consistent with the diagnostic criteria for depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
 

Convergent Validity: Correlations between the BDI-II scores and other scales are as follows: the Beck Hopelessness Scale (r = .68), the Revised Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (r = .71), and the Symptom Checklist-90-R Depression subscale (r = .89).

Discriminant Validity: The correlation between the BDI-II and the Revised Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale = .47. The correlation between the BDI-II and the Beck Anxiety Inventory .60.

Questions:

1. Describe and evaluate the norm group. Do you think it is representative? Do you think the norm group is current? Do you believe the size of the norm group was large enough? Are the samples related to the population you intend to use the test with? Explain.
    
2. Describe and evaluate each method used to estimate reliability. Does the reliability evidence support a decision to use the instrument? Explain.
    
3. Describe and evaluate each type of validity evidence. Does the validity evidence support a decision to use the instrument? Explain.
    
4. Describe the practical aspects of the instrument, focusing on issues related to time required for administration, ease of administration and ease of scoring.
    
5. Summarize the strengths and weakness of the inventory.
    
6. Based on your review of the BDI-II, would you adopt this instrument? Explain your answer.

Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.

Submission of Best Work-Weeks 1-4 (Individual)

Introduction

Best work advantage: In order to have every advantage, you are asked to submit your best Main Posts from whole group discussions. This ensures that the instructors are recognizing your best work. Evaluate your own work according to the rubric, and formulate a grade, adding it to the Word document with your best work.

Directions

1. In a Word document, copy and paste a Main Post entry from each Discussion Board question required from Weeks 1-4, and as many response posts as were required for that post. Each entry should be labeled with the appropriate Week (1, 2, 3, or 4).
    
2. Evaluate your work based on the rubric standard found on the Syllabus page. Give yourself a grade of "A", "B", "C", or "F". If you wish, you may state why you believe this grade to be accurate, but this is not necessary.
    
3. Upload the document to the Gradebook entry by the end of the week.

Assignment: Weekly Quizzes (Individual)

Introduction:

Weekly quizzes will be available, and you are expected to complete a minimum of ten quizzes during the semester. The quizzes are open book, multiple choice, and approximately 20 questions each. They reflect the content of the book and are focused on the course objectives for the week. The quizzes cover items you will need to know to prepare for the NCE exam. You can retake the quiz one additional time during each week if you score below an 80%.
 

Directions:

1. Review the directions and scoring tool for this assignment, located on the Syllabus page.
    
2. Be sure that you have completed the assigned readings and have your book with you when you take the quiz.
    
3. To take this week's quiz, click on Gradebook and then click on "Quiz 5."
    
4. Complete and submit the quiz by the end of this week.
    
5. Your grade will be available after you submit the quiz. If you wish to retake it, wait until Sunday morning, and the Quiz will be reset for everyone. It will be labeled "Quiz Retake" and you may retake it for new questions to practice on, or for a better grade. In either case, it cannot hurt your grade to retake because when there are two or more grades, the highest grade will be used to compute your final grade for the term. If there is one grade, then that grade will be used. Each Quiz is due on Monday night midnight of the day that it is due. It is available for two weeks to allow for those students who are ill, traveling, or just having a difficult week. After the two-week availability, the correct answers will be shown when you view your previously answered Quizzes.