Psychological Test Usage among Secondary School Counsellors in Nigeria

In Nigeria, despite the inclusion of guidance and counselling in secondary schools, the behaviour problems among the youths were on the increase. This problem was traceable to ineffectiveness of diagnosis technique which resulted to ineffectiveness of counselling process. The study examined the prevalence of psychological tests usage among counsellors in Nigerian secondary schools in diagnosing students’ behaviour problem. This study adopted a survey research design. Three hundred and sixty-eight professional counsellors who were members of Counselling Association of Nigeria participated in the study. These participants were made up of 128 or 35% males and 240 or 65% females. Their ages range from 24-59years with the mean of 38.4years. Psychological Test Usage Scale (PTUS) was developed to measure counsellors’ psychological test usage in diagnosing clients’ unobservable psychological problems. Three hypotheses were tested and the findings revealed a significant difference between counsellors who use psychological tests and those who do not. Psychological tests usage was found to be significantly different based on educational level and years of experience of counsellors. The findings were discussed and recommendations were made among others that counsellors should be posted to secondary schools based their experiential and clinical experience.