Psychological Assessment in South Africa

Sumaya Laher is an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She has published extensively and has been teaching psychometrics and psychological assessment at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for over a decade. Kate Cockcroft is an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She conducts research in the field of developmental cognitive psychology, particularly intelligence, memory, and language, as well as cognitive assessment in the South African context. She has published extensively and has also been teaching psychometrics and psychological assessment at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for over a decade.

This book provides an overview of the research related to psychological assessment across South Africa.The thirty-six chapters provide a combination of psychometric theory and practical assessment applications in order to combine the currently disparate research that has been conducted locally in this field. Existing South African texts on psychological assessment are predominantly academic textbooks that explain psychometric theory and provide brief descriptions of a few testing instruments. Psychological Assessment in South Africa provides in-depth coverage of a range of areas within the broad field of psychological assessment, including research conducted with various psychological instruments. The chapters critically interrogate the current Eurocentric and Western cultural hegemonic practices that dominate the field of psychological assessment. The book therefore has the potential to function both as an academic text for graduate students, as well as a specialist resource for professionals, including psychologists, psychometrists, remedial teachers and human resource practitioners.