Pre-marital counseling.

Deceptive appearances

My point is that the same data probably could have been elicited in a good interview session. I'm not very sure that the T-TJA scientifically confirms anything; it just confirms what we already are thinking. On the down side, it can possibly create artifacts and lead our thinking in the wrong direction. That's all from a pragmatic view without addressing the serious theoretical concerns and Jungian psychology. My major prof in grad school said of psycho-educational testing: "All our tests do is really confirm what the competent classroom teacher knew all along." Well, that's pretty close to being accurate.

It is neat the way that one of my texts portrayed psychological testing on a scale of rock solid to mush. The rock solid end was statistically based measures in achievement and areas offering quantifiable data. At the other end was the affective domain, especially personality testing. All this had was clinic experience. Of course, clinical experience varied greatly with the type of psychotherapy that one was doing. So, it was pretty much all opinions are valid, at least if you have a doctorate and a goatee.

As a psychometrist, I am thoroughly skeptical of personality testing. IMHO, it is potentially harmful because it gives the appearance of scientific validity and reliability but it is not sound from a scientific point of view. There are simply too many variables to control and it is impossible to quantify value statements. IMHO, counseling is a human art skill that cannot be relegated to tests and measures. After all, what are you measuring and what is your standard scale for comparison?