ABSTRACT
Psychological assessment in the United States is undergoing a significant shift in context. This shift results from dramatic, ongoing social changes in the United States; the ethnic and cultural makeup of the United States is changing. For some time, people of European backgrounds have com prised the majority ethnic and cultural group in the United States. Given current trends, in 2010, there will be no dominant ethnic or cultural group in the United States (Sue, 1991). Instead, more than half the population will include members of visible racial and ethnic groups who do not share this European ethnic and cultural background. However, aside from some notable exceptions (e.g., TEMAS; Constantino, Malgady, & Rogler, 1988), most of the standardized personality tests currently used in the United States were developed using samples composed predominately of EuroAmerican individuals. Over half a century ago, Guilford (1942) empha sized, as did other writers, that validity is not a general characteristic of a test, thus, a test could be highly valid for one purpose or setting, but not at all valid for another.
