Forensic Psychology

Forensic Psychology

Question One

Do you think race norming is a significant answer to difference biases, or is it a way to lower the standards for traditionally underrepresented groups? Support your answer with scholarly literature and resources.

Answer

Introduction

Race norming is basically a method to adjust different scores through uniquely standardized tests. Separate curves are used for different racial groups. This practice is utilized for analyzing the skills for all the applicants for any job opportunity. Similar test is given to all the job applicants; however, the grading of tests is done differently according to the race of the applicant.

Discussion

I do not think that race norming provides a significant answer to the different biases that prevails in the different ethnic and racial groups. The fact that the practice of race norming was banned in the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1991 seems to advance and support my thinking. Providing the similar and standardized tests to all the applicants of any job opening but grading the test scores differently seems to be biased practice in itself (Edwards, 2013).

The practice of race norming is essentially used to lower the standards for traditionally underrepresented groups. I believe if the fair employment practices are meant to be observed in the society; then there is a need to make sure that fairness is practiced in every step and process of the recruitment process. Converting the test scores to percentile or standard scores for different racial groups do not seem a fair practice to me.

The process of race norming do not calculate the percentile score of any individual in relation with the entire number of people who took the test; rather the percentile score is calculated in relation with the people of the same racial group. When the percentile scores are calculated; the different lists are created for all the racial groups to make the final selection decisions. People taking the same tests are discriminated in grading due to their racial differences. The race norming is done within the racial groups (Carper & McKinsey, 2011).

The similar raw scores for different races like Whites and Blacks are usually converted to various percentiles revolving around the distribution of scores of different racial groups. The discrimination comes in when a Black candidate and a White candidate earns the same score on a test but they are provided with different final results in the form of selecting one candidate and rejecting the other one only due to their different races. Due to this factor, I find the process of race norming extremely discriminating.

An important example of race norming can be seen from the scores of Labor Department score conversion table of race norming. Four individuals taking a standardized test of the cognitive skills for a government job referral service. All four individuals earned a similar score of three hundred. However, the scores were provided differently to the employers and the workers themselves due to the process of race norming.

The first lady scored 83 because she is Black, ...