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Internet-based questionnaire assessment: appropriate use in clinical contexts.
1University of Westminster, London, UK. buchant@wmin.ac.uk
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
|November 18, 2005
Summary
Internet-delivered psychological tests can be reliable, but using traditional norms may lead to errors. Researchers recommend avoiding normative data for clinical online assessments due to differing score distributions.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Digital Health
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Internet-mediated assessments are increasingly used in telehealth.
- Web-based psychological testing can be reliable and valid when properly validated.
- Challenges exist in applying traditional normative data to online assessments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the validity and reliability of internet-mediated questionnaire assessments.
- To investigate the impact of using traditional normative data with online assessments.
- To provide recommendations for the clinical use of online psychological testing.
Main Methods:
- Review of literature on web-based psychological testing.
- Analysis of data from three different projects comparing testing media.
- Examination of score distributions across online and paper-and-pencil assessments.
Main Results:
- Online tests require specific validation for web-based use.
- Score distributions can significantly differ between online and paper-and-pencil testing formats.
- Using established norms with internet-mediated assessments can lead to interpretation errors.
Conclusions:
- While online psychological tests show promise, caution is needed.
- Normative data derived from paper-and-pencil tests may not be appropriate for online assessments.
- Clinical interpretation of online assessments should currently avoid reliance on traditional normative data.