Psychological Testing and Assessment Notes

Test - a measurement device or technique used to quantify behaviour or aid in

the understanding and prediction of 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 a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly. This

response can be scored (objective tests) or evaluated (projective
techniques). The specific questions or problems that make up a test.
The data produced in psychological and educational tests are explicit
and subjected to scientific inquiry.

Note: there is, however, a clean cut distinction between ability tests and
personality tests. Ability Tests are related to capacity or potential, while
Personality Tests are related to overt and covert dispositions of an individual,
like the tendency of a person to respond to a given situation. Personality tests
measure typical behaviour.
The types of Personality Tests are:

Psychological Test (educational test) set of items that are designed to

measure characteristics of human beings that pertain to behaviour. Measures
past or current behaviour. Some also attempt to predict future behaviour.
Types of Behaviour:

Overt Behaviour an individuals observable activity.

Covert Behaviour takes place within the individual and cannot be
directly observed. Examples are feelings and thoughts.

Scales- used by psychologists to relate raw scores on test items to some

defined theoretical or empirical distribution.
Traits enduring characteristics or tendencies to respond in a certain manner.
Examples are determination and shyness.
Test Scores may be related to the state, specific condition or status of an
individual.
Tests measures many types of behaviour.
TYPES OF TESTS
Test Administrator person assigned to give the test. Gives the test to only
one person at a time, depending on the type of test.

Individual Tests those that can be given to only one person at a

time.
Group Test can be administered to more than one person at a time
by a single examiner.

Note: One can categorize tests according to the type of behaviour that they
measure.
o
o
o

Achievement refers to previous learning.

Aptitude potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill.
Intelligence refers to a persons general potential to solve problems,
adapt to changing circumstances, think abstractly, and profit from
experience.

Note: distinctions among these three are not so clear because all three are
highly interrelated. All three are encompassed by the term Human Ability.

Structured Personality Tests (objective tests) provide a

statement, usually of the self-report variety, like the True or False
types.
Projective Personality Tests unstructured. The stimulus (test
material) or the required response are ambiguous. Examples are the
Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Test. This type of test
assumes that a persons interpretation of an ambiguous stimuli might
somehow reflect his or her unique characteristics, or their underlying
feelings or thoughts.

Psychological Testing - refers to all the possible uses, applications, and

underlying concepts of psychological and educational tests. The main use of
these tests, though, is to evaluate individual differences or variations among
individuals.
Such tests measures individual differences in ability and personality, to show
actual differences among individuals. Its most important purpose is to
differentiate among test takers.
Two of the most fundamental concepts in testing:
o

Reliability accuracy, dependability, consistency, or repeatability of

test results. Degree to which test scores are free of measurement
errors. Consistency of test scores over time.
Validity meaning and usefulness of test results. Degree to which a
certain inference or interpretation is appropriate. Measure what it is
supposed to measure.

Interview a method of gathering information through verbal interaction.

Traditionally served as a major technique of gathering psychological
information. Data from interviews provide an important complement to test
results.
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
Evidence suggests that the Chinese had a relatively sophisticated civil service
testing program more than 4000 years ago. Every third year, oral examinations
were given to help determine work evaluations and promotion decisions. Use of
Test Batteries (two or more tests used in conjunction) was quite common.
The English copied the Chinese System as a method of selecting employees for
overseas duty.
In 1883, the US Government established the American Civil Service
Commission, which developed and administered competitive examinations for
certain government jobs.

MEASURING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

BINET-SIMON SCALES

Started with Charles Darwins publication of his highly influential book, The
Origin of Species in 1859. According to his theory, higher forms of life
evolved partially because of differences among individual forms of life within a
species. Those with the best adaptive characteristics survive at the expense of
those who are less fit and that the survivors characteristics are passed on to
the next generation.

At the turn of the 20 th century, an important breakthrough was when the French
Minister of Public Instruction appointed a commission to study ways of
identifying intellectually subnormal individuals in order to provide them
with appropriate educational experiences. One member was Alfred Binet, and
in his collaboration with French physician Theodore Simon, developed the
first major general intelligence test. This effort launched the first
systematic attempt to evaluate individual differences in human intelligence.
The principal goal of the Binet-Simon Scale was to identify students who
needed special help in coping with the school curriculum.

Sir Francis Galton applied Darwins theories to the study of human beings. In
his book, Hereditary Genius (1869), he set out to show that some people
possessed characteristics that made them more fit than the others. He began a
series of experimental studies, and concentrated on demonstrating that
individual differences exists in human sensory and motor functioning.
James McKeen Cattell extended Galtons work and coined the term Mental
Test. His doctoral dissertation was based on Galtons work on individual
differences in reaction time.
J.E. Herbart developed mathematical models of the mind, which he used as
the basis for educational theories.
E.H. Weber attempted to demonstrate the existence of a psychological
threshold, the minimum stimulus necessary to activate a sensory system.
G.T Fechner devised the law that the strength of a sensation grows as the
logarithm of the stimulus intensity.
Wilhelm Wundt is credited with founding the science of psychology. He set up
a laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879, and was later called the father
of Experimental Psychology.
His successors were E.B. Titchener, whose student, G. Whipple, recruited
L.L. Thurstone.
Whipple provided the basis for immense changes in the field of testing by
conducting a seminar at the Carnegie Institute in 1919. From this seminar came
the Carnegie Interest Inventory and later the Strong Vocational Interest
Blank.
Thus, psychological testing developed from at least two lines of inquiry: one
based on the work of Darwin, Galton, and Cattell on the measurement of
individual differences, and the other (more theoretically relevant and probably
stronger) based on the work of the German psychophysicists Herbart, Weber,
Fechner, and Wundt.

The first version of the Binet-Simon Scale was published in 1905. It

contained 30 items of increasing difficulty and was designed to identify
intellectually subnormal individuals. Standardization sample consisted of
50 children. The authors of the scale developed norms to which they could
compare the results from any new subject.
The emphasis was on language and verbal skills.
Further development of the Binet test involved attempts to increase the size
and representativeness of the standardization sample. A representative
sample is one that comprises individuals similar to those for whom the test is
to be used. When the test is used for the general population, a representative
sample must reflect all segments of the population in proportion to their actual
numbers.
The 1908 Binet-Simon scale. Revised to include nearly twice as many items
compared to the 1905 scale. Standardization sample was increased to more
than 200. It also determined a childs Mental Age, which is the measurement
of a childs performance on the test relative to other children of the particular
age group.
The Binet-Simon Scale received a minor revision in 1911.
Lewis Terman of Stanford University had revised the Binet scale in 1916 for
use in the US. His revision was known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence
Scale, the only American version of the Binet scale that flourished.
Standardization Sample included 1000 people. Original items were revised
and many new items were added.
The 1937 Revision of the Stanford-Binet scale included a standardization
sample of more than 3000 individuals.
In 1938, revision included performance subtests.

Modern psychological tests also arose in response to important needs such as

classifying and identifying the mentally and emotionally handicapped.

WORLD WAR I

Seguin Form Board Test was developed in an effort to educate and

evaluate the mentally disabled.

Robert Yerkes, the president of the American Psychological Association in

1917 headed a committee who developed two structured group tests of human
abilities; the Army Alpha and the Army Beta. The Army Alpha required
reading ability, while the Army Beta measured intelligence of illiterate adults.

Emil Kraepelin also devised a series of examinations for evaluating

emotionally impaired people. He was identified as the founder of modern
scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics

The development of standardized achievement tests followed shortly after WWI.

Standardized Achievement Tests provide multiple-choice questions that are

standardized on a large sample to produce norms for comparison across

individuals. SATs flourished because of the relative ease of administration and
scoring, and lack of subjectivity or favouritism. SATs also provided a broader
coverage and were less expensive compared to essays. The development of
SATs culminated in the publication of the Stanford Achievement Test by
Kelley, Ruch, and Terman.
WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALES
In 1939, David Wechsler published the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence
Scale, which unlike the Stanford-Binet test that produced only a single score
(the IQ), Wechslers test yielded several scores, permitting an analysis of an
individuals pattern or combination of abilities. Among the various scores was
the Performance IQ, which was obtained by tests that do not require a verbal
response.

PERSONALITY TESTS
Earliest were structured paper-and-pencil group tests, which provided multiple
choice and true or false questions that could be administered to a large group.
First one was the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, an early structured
personality test that assumed that a test response can be taken at face value.
The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) is a structured personality
test developed according to the same principles as the MMPI.
Factor Analysis - a method of finding the minimum number of dimensions
(characteristics, attributes), called factors, to account for a large number of
variables. J.R. Guilford first made use of factor analytic techniques, then R.B.
Cattell introduced the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)