Cross-Cultural Assessment and Measurement Issues

This paper describes issues related to cross-cultural measurement, and the assessment of Aboriginal people. We discuss clinical implications as well as suggestions for completing assessments with different cultural groups. The issues described can be generalized to the measurement and assessment of Aboriginal people across the entire mental measurement spectrum. Much of the discussion however, will be focussed on the measurement of cognitive ability, and reviewing an established literature on the shortcomings of cognitive ability assessment amongst culturally diverse groups. Special care should be taken during the assessment procedure and when interpreting Aboriginal people's scores. Culture can have significant impact on the performance of a minorit