Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T14:32:37.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 14 - Psychological Assessment and Testing in Malaysia and Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

Sumaya Laher
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Get access

Summary

This chapter reviews the history and development of psychological assessment and testing in the region of Southeast Asia. Malaysia and Singapore are the focus of the chapter as both countries share similar yet significant historical, racial, and cultural backgrounds. Given that the field of psychological testing is more prominent in Western countries, it is natural for countries within Southeast Asia, or in this chapter, Malaysia and Singapore to adapt to Western cultures. The major question will then be pointing toward the validity and reliability of most psychological assessment and testing if they are used within Southeast Asia, with various native languages co-habiting within the societies. Thus, the aim of this review is to provide an update regarding the cross-cultural validity of psychological assessment in Southeast Asia, as well as to introduce instruments that are appropriately and culturally adapted and developed.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blowers, G. H., & Turtle, A. M. (eds.). (1987). A Westview special study. Psychology moving East: The status of Western psychology in Asia and OceaniaBoulder, CO/Sydney: Westview Press/Sydney University Press.Google Scholar
Butcher, J. N., Cheung, F. M., & Lim, J. (2003). Use of the MMPI-2 with Asian populations. Psychological Assessment, 15(3), 248256.Google Scholar
Camara, W. J., Nathan, J. S. & Puente, A. E. (2000). Psychological test usage: Implications in professional psychology. Professional Psychology Research and Practice, 31(2), 141154.Google Scholar
Central Bank of Malaysia. (2020). Economics and Financial Development in Malaysia in the Fourth Quarter of 2019. First Quarter 2019 Report (pp. 5–25).Google Scholar
Chan, A. S., Shum, D., & Cheung, R. W. Y. (2003). Recent development of cognitive and neuropsychological assessment in Asian countries. Psychological Assessment, 3(15), 257267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, F. M., Leong, F. T. L., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (2003). Psychological assessment in Asia: Introduction to the special section. Psychological Assessment, 3(15), 243247.Google Scholar
Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2010). Population Distribution and Basic Demographic Characteristics.Google Scholar
Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2019). Demographic Statistics Second Quarter 2019.Google Scholar
Dixon, L. Q. (2009). Assumptions behind Singapore’s language-in-education policy: Implications for language planning and second language acquisitionLanguage Policy8(2), 117137. doi:10.1007/s10993-009-9124-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauzaman, J., Ansari, Z. A., & Khan, R. (2005). Patterns of psychological test usage in Malaysia. In Ansari, Z. A., Noor, N. M., & Haque, A. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Malaysian Psychology (pp. 265284). Singapore: Thompson Learning.Google Scholar
Fowler, R. D. (2002). Regional psychology conference in India. International Clinical Psychologist: Newsletter of the International Society of Clinical Psychology, 4(1), 56.Google Scholar
Hambleton, R. K., & Patsula, L. (1999). Increasing the validity of adapted tests: Myths to be avoided and guidelines for improving test adaptation practices. Journal of Applied Testing Technology, 1, 112.Google Scholar
Hathaway, S. R., & McKinley, J. C. (1967). The MMPI manual. New York: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Hill, H. (2010). Malaysian economic development: Looking backwards and forward in working papers in trade and development. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Kadri, Z. N. (1971). The use of the MMPI for personality study of Singapore students. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 10, 9091.Google Scholar
Krauss, S., Hamzah, A., Rumaya, J., & Hamid, J. (2005). The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI): Towards Understanding Differences in the Islamic Religiosity among the Malaysian Youth.Google Scholar
Lai, L. L. & Loh, P. S. (2015). Validation of the Malay version of the Amsterdam preoperative anxiety and information scale (APAIS). The Medical journal of Malaysia, 70(4),243248.Google Scholar
Lim, K. K. (2000). Vital who administers IQ tests. Forum, The Straits Times, November, (18), 34.Google Scholar
Lim, T. O., Das, A., Rampal, S., Zaki, M., Sahabudin, R. M., Rohan, M. J., & Isaacs, S. (2003). Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the English version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) for use in Malaysia. Int J Impot Res, 15(5), 329336. doi:10.1038/sj.ijir.3901009Google Scholar
Lockard, C. A., Ahmad, Z., Leinbach, T. R., & Ooi, J. B. (2020). Malaysia. Retrieved from www.britannica.com/place/MalaysiaGoogle Scholar
Long, F. Y. (1983). Psychology in Singapore: Its roots, contexts and growth, Singapore Psychologist, 1(2), 515.Google Scholar
Long, F. Y. (1987). Psychology in Singapore: Its roots, contexts and growth. In Blowers, G. H. & Turtle, A. M. (eds.), Psychology moving east (pp. 223248). Boulder, CO/London: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Long, F. Y. (1987). Personal communication (15 September).Google Scholar
Lonner, W. J., & Berry, J. W. (1986). Field methods in cross-cultural research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Maznah, I. & Lah, K. P. (1987). A survey of tests/measurement instruments in counselling [in Bahasa Malaysia]. Journal Perkama, 1, 105121.Google Scholar
Ministry of Economic Affairs. (2019). Shared prosperity vision 2030: Restructuring the priorities of Malaysia’s development. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad.Google Scholar
Mukhtar, F. & Oei, T. P. S. (2010). Exploratory and confirmatory factor validation of the dysfunctional attitude scale for Malays (DAS-Malay) in MalaysiaAsian Journal of Psychiatry, 3(3): 145151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mukhtar, F. & Zulkefly, N. S. (2011). The beck anxiety inventory for Malays (BAI-Malay): A preliminary study on psychometric properties. Malaysian Journal of Medical Health Science, 7(1): 739.Google Scholar
Musa, R. (n.d.). The Mental Health Information and Research Centre. Retrieved from www.ramlimusa.com/.Google Scholar
Ramli, M. (2019). Mental Health Information & Research Center (June 11). Retrieved from www.ramlimusa.com/about/mahir/.Google Scholar
Musa, R., Ramli, R., Abdullah, K., & Sarkarsi, R. (2011). Concurrent validity of the depression and anxiety components in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS). ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, 12(1), 6670.Google Scholar
National Institute of Education. (1997–1998). Prospectus for graduate programmes (pp. 15–16).Google Scholar
National Population and Talent Division. (2014). 2014 population in brief. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20150513031121/http://www.nptd.gov.sg/portals/0/news/population-in-brief-2014.pdfGoogle Scholar
Oei, T. P. S. & Mukhtar, F. (2008). Exploratory and confirmatory factor validation and psychometric properties of the automatic thoughts questionnaire for Malays (ATQ-Malay) in Malaysia. Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry, 18(3), 92100.Google Scholar
Okazaki, S., David, E. J. R., and Abelmann, N. (2008). Colonialism and psychology of cultureSocial and Personality Psychology Compass2(1), 90106. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00046.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paunonen, S. V. & Ashton, M. C. (1998). The structured assessment of personality across cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29(1), 150170.Google Scholar
Rahman, W. R. A. (2005). History of psychology in Malaysia. In Ansari, Z. A., Noor, N. M., & Haque, A. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Malaysian Psychology (pp. 117). Kuala Lumpur: Thompson Learning.Google Scholar
Rosen, R., Riley, A., Wagner, G., Osterloh, H., Kirkpatrick, J., & Mishra, A. (1997). The international index of erectile function (IIEF): A multidimensional scale for assessment of erectile dysfunction. Urology, 49, 822830.Google Scholar
Rust, J. (2000). Singapore Wechsler objective reading and language dimensions manual. London: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Supplement of the Republic of Singapore Government Gazette. (July 20, 1979). List of registered societies in the Republic of Singapore, published in accordance with the provisions of section 5 of the Societies Act, as on April 1, 1979, no. 18/79, p. 85.Google Scholar
Tan, A. G. (2002). Development of psychology in Singapore: Some perspectives. In Tan, A. G. & Goh, M. (eds.), Psychology in Singapore: Issues of an emerging discipline (pp. 319). Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education (Asia).Google Scholar
Tan, V. L. M. & Tan, N.T. (2000). Personality and effective management: MBTI profiles of Singapore managers. Singapore: Singapore Institute of Management.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme. (2019). Human development report 2019: Inequalities in human development in the 21st century. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/SGP.pdf.Google Scholar
Rahman, W. R. A. (2005). History of psychology in Malaysia. In Ansari, Z. A., Noor, N. M., & Haque, A. (eds.), Contemporary issues in Malaysian psychology (pp. 265284). Singapore: Thompson Learning.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1955). The Wechsler adult intelligence scale. New York: Psychological Corp.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1974). Wechsler intelligence scale for children – revised. New York: Psychological Corp.Google Scholar
Yusof, Z. A. & Bhattasali, D. (2008). Economic growth and development in Malaysia: Policy making and leadership. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×