POSITION PAPER 4

“Since most of the assessment instruments in the market were made based on American culture, Muslim counselors should not use standardized assessment instruments at all”. Discuss.


Assessment can be defined as an opinion or judgment about something that has been thought about very carefully and an instrument means a tool or device used for particular task. Hence, from these definition we can summaries that assessment instrument in counseling is the tools or device that we use to give an opinion or judgment to our clients. The examples of instruments that we use in counseling are career assessment instruments, personality assessment instruments, and so on.

As we know most of the assessment instruments in the market were made based on American culture, so we as Muslim counselors should not use this standardize assessment instruments at all. This is because, our culture are not the same as the American culture so when we use the same instruments to assess our clients the result that they may get are not valid and reliable. For example, personality test that we use to test our clients will not fit our client personality because the result that they will get is base on western culture. Furthermore, the instruments that they created are based on observation that they do according to the people in their country. It means that their culture background is totally different from our culture so, we should not use the same instruments to asses our clients.

Furthermore, the other reasons why Muslim counselors should not use the assessment instruments that make base on American culture because some of our clients are not understand English language, so it is difficult to them to answer the questions correctly. Beside that, sometimes it may create misunderstanding to the clients when their English level are not strong, so the may understand the content of the questions from the other way round. Moreover, if we translate the instruments to the language that are easier for them to understand, sometimes we also may create mistake and this situation will make the result of the test are not valid and reliable. Hence, it shows that Muslims counselors should not use the assessment instruments that base on American culture at all because the result that the clients may get are not valid and reliable.

Unfortunately, some people might say that Muslim counselors can use assessment instruments that base on American culture because not all the items can not be use according to their clients culture background. According to Prof. Eysenck, his idea is to test against cultural stereotypes, that is the "norm", the way a statistical majority of people actually are in Western society. The "norm" is not necessarily an enlightened point of view; it simply represents what a typical person's responses are likely to be. It doesn't mean the normal responses are 'right' or 'correct'. So, from the above statements we can say that it is not an issue if Muslim counselors use assessments instruments that base on Western culture. Moreover, to make sure the instruments that the Muslim counselors use can give result that are more valid, they can estimate and choose the items that are more applicable and choose the items that are fit the value of their culture. Then, if the items are not fit they can change to the other items that are more appropriate. To make sure that the items that they change are valid, they can do research and observation base on their culture background. So, it show that Muslim counselors still can use assessment instruments that come from Western culture but they have to do a few adjustment to make sure that the assessment instruments that they use may give valid and reliable result to their clients.

Moreover, the language barrier is not the main problem to use assessment instruments that make by Western people. To avoid the clients face the problem of misunderstanding or can not understand the content of the items in the instruments, Muslim counselors can translate the instruments to the language that are easier for their clients to understand. Furthermore, if the counselors afraid that they may create mistake while they are translating the items, they can ask an expert in the both languages to help them translating all the items in the instruments. So, with this way it can avoid Muslim counselors from doing mistake in translating the items in the assessment instruments. After doing the translation, the Muslims counselors can use the assessment instruments that make base on American culture background.

In conclusion, assessment instruments that made base on American culture can be used by Muslim counselors but it is based on the situations whether all the items in the instruments can be used or not. Besides that, Muslims counselors also can create other instruments that can fit their culture background and use the instruments that make by Western people as a reference to create new test instruments that are more valid and reliable.


Created by : Wan Nor Masithah Bt. Mior Abdul Aziz 0720436