Psychological Assessment in South Africa

Review:

This book covers various aspects of psychological assessment in South Africa, including information about specific tests in the South African context and assessment approaches.  The sections probably of most interest to those practicing neuropsychology, are the sections on cognitive functioning.

Some of the topics covered are: WAIS-III, WISC-IV, SSAIS-R, JSAIS, K-ABC, the Griffiths Mental Development Scales and the ImPACT test in the South African context.  The book also covers school readiness in South Africa, the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System and dynamic assessment.  One chapter (Chapter 13) is dedicated to neuropsychological assessment in South Africa. The chapter on the WAIS-III (Chapter 2) includes norms for healthy South Africans who speak either Xhosa or English as a first language, aged 19 – 31 years, with 12+ or 15+ years of advantaged or disadvantaged quality of education. The chapter on the WISC-IV (Chapter 3) includes norms for healthy South African Xhosa-, English- and Afrikaans-speaking children in Grade 7 with either advantaged or disadvantaged quality of education. The chapter on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)(Chapter 7) includes norms for healthy South African multilingual children aged 5 and 10 years with low socio-economic status; monolingual English and bilingual Afrikaans-English 9-year-old children; and 10-year-old English-, Zulu- and Sesotho-speaking children with low socio-economic backgrounds.

Other topics in the book include personality tests, projective tests, career assessment and ethics in assessment.  The book is practically useful and the knowledge to be gained from reading the book is essential for any psychologist practicing or teaching psychological assessment in South Africa.

Review written by Sharon Truter.

This book can be purchased through WITS University Press