Psychological Testing Testing and Assess ment Notes Test Test - a measurement device or technique used to quantify behaviour or aid in the understanding and prediction of behaviour. behaviour. Remember that a test measures only a sample of behaviour, and they are not perfect measures of a behaviour or characteristic, but will probably help in the prediction process. •
Item Item – a specic specic stimulus stimulus to which a person person responds responds overtly. This response response can be scored scored (objective (objective tests or evaluated evaluated (projective (projective techniques. The specic questions or problems that ma!e up a test. The data produced in psychological and educational tests are e"plicit and subjected to scientic inquiry. inquiry.
Note Note## there there is, however, a clean cut distinction distinction between between ability ability tests and personali personality ty tests. tests. A%ilit A%ility y Tests ests are related to capacity capacity or potential, potential, while Personality Tests are related to overt and covert dispositions of an individual, li!e the tendency of a person to respond to a given situation. ersonality tests measure typical behaviour. The types of Personality Tests are& Struc Structur tured ed Pers Persona onali lity ty Tests ests – 'o%(e 'o%(ect ctive ive tests tests)) provid provide e a statement, statement, usually of the self-report self-report variety, li!e the )True )True or /alse0 alse0 types. Pro(ec Pro(ective tive Personal Personality ity Tests ests – unstructur unstructured. ed. The stimulus stimulus (test material or the required response are ambiguous. "amples are the *orscha *orschach ch and Themati Thematic c A""erc A""erce"ti e"tion on Test& This type of test assumes that a person's interpretation of an ambiguous stimuli might somehow re1ect his or her unique characteristics, or their underlying feelings or thoughts.
Psychologica Psychologicall Test Test – (educatio (educational nal test set of items that are designed designed to measure characteristics of human beings that pertain to behaviour. #easures past or current behaviour. $ome also attempt to predict future behaviour. behaviour. Types Types of %ehaviour& • •
Overt Behaviour – an individual's observable activity. activity. Covert Behaviour – – ta!es place within the individual and cannot be directly observed. "amples are feelings and thoughts.
Scales Scales-- used by psychologists psychologists to relate raw scores scores on test items to some dened theoretical or empirical distribution. Traits – enduring characteristics or tendencies to respond in a certain manner. "amples are )determination' and )shyness'. Test Scores – may be related to the state, specic condition or status of an individual.
Psychologic Psychological al Testing Testing - refers refers to all the possible possible uses, applications, applications, and underlying concepts of psychological and educational tests. The main use of these tests, though, is to evaluate individual di2erences or variations among individuals. $uch tests measures individual di2erences in ability and personality, to show actual actual di2er di2erenc ences es among among indivi individua duals. ls. 3ts most most import important ant purpos purpose e is to di2erentiate among test ta!ers. Two Two of the most fundamental fundamental concepts in testing& o
Tests Tests measures many many types of behaviour. behaviour. o
TYPES O TESTS Test Administrator – person assigned to give the test. *ives the test to only one person at a time, depending on the type of test. •
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Individual Individual Tests Tests – those that can be given to only one person at a time. !rou" Test – can be administered to more than one person at a time by a single e"aminer.
Note& Note& +ne can categorie tests according to the type of behaviour that they measure. o o o
Achievement – refers to previous learning. A"titude – potential for learning or acquiring a specic s!ill. Intelligence – refers to a person's general potential to solve problems, adapt adapt to changing changing circumstances circumstances,, thin! abstractly, abstractly, and prot from e"perience.
Note# Note# distinctions among these three are not so clear because all three are highly interrelated. ll three are encompassed by the term $uman A%ility&
*elia%ilit *elia%ility y – accuracy, dependability, consistency, or repeatability of test results. results. 4egree 4egree to which test scores are free of measureme measurement nt errors. 5onsistency of test scores over time. +alidi +alidity ty – meaning and usefulness of test results. 4egree to which a certain inference or interpretation is appropriate. #easure what it is supposed to measure.
Intervi Intervie, e, – a method method of gathering gathering informatio information n through through verbal verbal interactio interaction. n. Traditionally Traditionally served as a major technique of gathering psychological informatio information. n. 4ata from interviews interviews provide provide an important important complement complement to test results. $ISTO*ICA ANTECE.ENTS vidence suggests that the 5hinese had a relatively sophisticated civil service testing program more than 6777 years ago. very third year, oral e"aminations were given to help determine wor! evaluations and promotion decisions. 8se of Test Batteries 'two 'two or more tests used in conjunction was quite common. The nglish copied the 5hinese $ystem as a method of selecting employees for overseas duty. 3n 9::; 9::;,, the the 8$ *ove *overn rnme ment nt esta establ blis ishe hed d the the American American Civil Service Commission/ which developed and administered competitive e"aminations for certain government jobs.
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0EAS1*IN! IN.I+I.1A .IE*ENCES $tarted $tarted with 5harles 5harles 4arwin's publication publication of his highly in1uential in1uential boo!, The Origin Origin o2 S"ecies S"ecies in 3456 3456&& ccording ccording to his theory, theory, higher higher forms of life evolved partially because of di2erences among individual forms of life within a species. Those with the best adaptive characteristics survive at the e"pense of those who are less t and that the survivor's characteristics are passed on to the ne"t generation. Sir rancis !alton applied 4arwin's theories to the study of human beings. 3n his boo!, boo!, $ereditary $ereditary !enius '3476)/ he set out to show that some people possessed characteristics that made them more t than the others. ?, and was later called the father of "perimental sychology.
BINET-SI0ON SCAES t the turn of the A7th century, an important brea!through was when the /rench #inister #inister of ublic ublic 3nstruction 3nstruction appointed appointed a commission commission to study study ,ays ,ays o2 identi2ying intellectually su%normal individuals in order to provide them with appropriate educational e"periences. +ne member was Al2red Binet/ and in his collabora collaboration tion with /rench /rench physician physician Theodore Theodore Simon/ Simon/ developed the = items items of incre increasing asing diBculty diBculty and was desig designed ned to identi identi2y 2y intellectually su%normal individuals . $tandardiation sample consisted of 5= children& The children& The authors of the scale developed norms to which they could compare the results from any new subject. The emphasis was on on language and verbal verbal s!ills. /urther development of the %inet test involved attempts to increase the sie and and repre represen sentat tative ivenes ness s of the standa standard rdia iatio tion n sample sample.. re"resentative sam"le is sam"le is one that comprises individuals similar to those for whom the test is to be used. @hen the test is used for the general population, a representative sample must re1ect all segments of the population in proportion to their actual numbers. The 36=4 Binet-Simon scale. scale . Revised to include nearly twice as many items compared to the 9?7C scale. $tandardiation sample was increased to more than ?==& 3t also determined a child's 0ental Age/ which is the measurement of a child's performance on the test relative to other children of the particular age group. The %inet-$imon $cale $cale received a minor revision revision in 3633& e,is Terman of $tanford 8niversity had revised the %inet scale in 3637 for use in the 8$.
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standard standardied ied on a large large sample sample to produce produce norms for comparison comparison across across individuals. $Ts 1ourished because of the relative ease of administration and scoring, and lac! of subjectivity or favouritism. $Ts also provided a broader coverage and were less e"pensive compared to essays. The development of $T $Ts culminated culminated in the publication publication of the Stan2ord Stan2ord Achievement Achievement Test %y 9elley/ 9elley/ *uc h/ and Terman& :EC$SE* INTEI!ENCE SCAES 3n 36>6/ 36>6/ .avid :echsler :echsler publis publishe hed d the :echsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale/ Scale/ which unli!e the $tanford-%inet test that produced only a single score (the 3E, @echsler's test yielded several scores, permitting an analysis of an individual's pattern or combination of abilities. mong the various scores was the Per2ormance I/ which was obtained by tests that do not require a verbal response.
PE*SONAITY TESTS arliest were structured paper-and-pencil group tests, which provided multiple choice and true or false questions that could be administered to a large group. /irst irst one was the :ood,orth :ood,orth Personal .ata Sheet/ Sheet/ an early structured structured personality test that assumed that a test response can be ta!en at face value. The Cali2ornia Cali2ornia Psychologic Psychological al Inventory 'CPI) is a structured structured personality personality test developed according to the same principles as the ##3. actor actor Analysis Analysis - a method of nding the minimum number of dimensions (character (characteristics istics,, attributes attributes, , called called factors, factors, to account account for a large large number number of variables. 8&*& variables. 8&*& !uil2ord rst made use of factor analytic techniques, then *&B& Cattell introduced the Siteen Personality actor uestionnaire '37P)
