so now that my burned offerings have been accepted, i get to stay in the program at least 2 more years unharassed, and also get to start seeing patients. norah had me tag along on thursday to do intelligence testing, something which sounds terribly glamorous when you first start out in the field, but is actually just a pain in the ass. (incid: this actually works out great for "psychologists" in singapore, because they get to shunt all the neuropsych testing onto the wet-behind-the ears fresh grads, with nary a complaint heard.)
i don't know if you've ever considered this, but giving someone an oral intelligence test is highly embarrassing for everyone concerned. (i certainly hadn't thought about it before i did some testing myself in my old job). with pencil-and-paper tests, there's a degree of separation: the candidate never has to see you while you're doing the grading. but with the WAIS, you're right there hammering the poor examinee with mental math and those horrible spatial rotation puzzles i could never do. so there's the guy being roasted, and you're not allowed to offer any correction or feedback, just "mm-hm", and "ok" and other non-commital grunting noises. and they're like: am i a jackass? am i mentally retarded?. and you're like: i dunno? next?
and furthermore, most of the tests i'd administered before were on people with alzheimer's or traumatic brain injuries, so it's not so bad if they're a disaster because you expect that. when we run studies in the lab, we of course have normal people, who grin at you sheepishly as they tell you things like the sun rises in the north, doesn't it? and all i can do is look down at my instruction pad, and continue reading in a monotone. it's like watching two dancers perform, one who's a paralytic, and the other who doesn't know the moves.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Pages

Contributors
- The Corgi of Mystery
- 1980: Born. 1989: Sudden affliction of self-awareness. Things downhill ever since.
My Blog List
-
-
-
Monday, December 19, 20168 years ago
-
the way around is through8 years ago
-
Goodbye, Flying Inkpot10 years ago
-
-
-
The Glorious Unfolding11 years ago
-
On Friendship (Part II)14 years ago
-
-
-
-
Quote of the Week
--
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(198)
-
▼
May
(18)
- it's been an uneventful week. wayne persuaded me t...
- while the criticisms are true -- that a large perc...
- (Read minz's post first, on how "students learn no...
- what happens next
- i've not reported this here before, but thomas has...
- From Crash Course, in The New Yorker, May 14, 2007...
- Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco SmokerWhene'er I ta...
- defense (short version)
- defense (longer version)
- defense (the god honest truth)
- somewhere in all of this is beauty
- the fall-to-spring academic year has a tempo compl...
- i was going to stay at home and lounge around read...
- From The Book on the Bookshelf, Henry Petroski:A c...
- i was looking through what i'd written over the pa...
- first things first:right. binding costs $2.95 a po...
- i found myself with about an hour to kill before m...
- rant
-
▼
May
(18)
No comments:
Post a Comment