PSYC 5120 Psychological Testing and Measurement

2013-2014, Second Term

Department of Psychology
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Course Description:
This course is designed to cover the basic principles of psychological measurement and the
techniques of test construction, administration, and validation.
Learning Approach:
You will learn through different activities, including lectures, laboratories, homework
assignments, take-home readings, and a group project.
Staff:
Lecturer
Name
CHAN, Wai
Office
FYB 340
Telephone
3943-6241
Email
wchan@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
Office Hour By Appointment

Teaching Assistant
LI, Emma K. W.
FYB 332
3943-1202
kwli@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
Monday 3:30 pm 5:30 pm
Or by appointment

Schedule:
Lecture
Laboratory

Time
Mon 6:30 pm 8:15 pm
Mon 8:30 pm 9:15 pm

Venue
ELB 405
ELB 405

Course Content:
Topics
1. Basic Concepts in Psychological
Measurement
2. Scales, Transformation, and Norms 1
3. Scales, Transformation, and Norms 2
4. Correlation Analysis
5. Scale Construction 1
6. Scale Construction 2
7. Theory of Summated Scores

Contents/fundamental concepts
- definition of a psychological test
- types of psychological tests
- how to evaluate a psychological test
- levels of measurement
- score transformation and its effect
- norms
- Pearson r and its tests
- multiple-item scaling
- Thurstone scale
- Guttman scale
- Likert scale
- statistical properties of composite scores
- functional relationship between a composite
score and its components
1

8. Reliability 1
9. Reliability 2
10. Validity 1
11. Validity 2
12. Factor Analysis
13. Item Analysis

- Classical Test Theory

- concept of parallel tests
- effect of test length and test reliability
- how to estimate a tests reliability
- test validation
- validity coefficient
- construct validity
- purposes of EFA
- factor extraction, rotation, and interpretation
- the importance of item characteristics on test
quality
- item difficulty and discriminability

Learning Goals:
1. To understand the basic principles of psychological measurement.
2. To learn the techniques of test construction, administration, and validation.
3. To learn how to use SPSS to analyze test items.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, you will have a better understanding about the basic concepts
and principles of psychological testing. In particular, you will know how to evaluate the quality
of a psychological test scientifically.
Learning Resources:
1. Textbook (e-book):
[KS] Kaplan, R. M., & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2013). Psychological testing: Principles,
applications, and issues (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
2. References:
[AY] Allen, M. J., & Yen, W. M. (1979). Introduction to measurement theory. Monterey,
CA: Brooks/Cole.
[GCZ] Ghiselli, E. E., Campbell, J. P., & Zedeck, S. (1981). Measurement theory for the
behavioral sciences. San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
[KJ] Kidder, L. H., & Judd, C. M. (1986). Research methods in social relations (5th ed.).
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
[S]
Sharma, S. (1996). Applied multivariate techniques. New York: Wiley.
3. Course Website:
Course material including lecture notes, tutorial handouts, and homework assignments can be
downloaded from our course website at the CU eLearning System.

Assessment and Grading Scheme:

Assignment
Quiz 1
Quiz 2
Quiz 3
Project

20%
20%
20%
20%
20%

Feedback for Evaluation:

Students are welcome to give comments and feedback at any time during the class. Stop by to
talk to the instructor or teaching assistant. You can also send us emails or post your comments
online.

Course Schedule:
Week
1

Date

Class

Jan 6

Lecture

Jan 13

Lab
Lecture

Jan 20

Lab
Lecture
Lab
Lecture
Lab

Jan 27

Feb 3
Feb 10

Feb 17

Feb 24

Lecture
Lab
Lecture
Lab
Lecture

Mar 3

Lab
Lecture

Mar 10

10

Mar 17

11

Mar 24

12

Mar 31

13

Apr 7

14

Apr 14

Lab
Lecture
Lab
Lecture
Lab
Lecture
Lab
Lecture
Lecture
Lab
Lecture
Lab

Topic

Readings

Basic Concepts in
[KS] Ch. 1
Psychological Measurement
Project Briefing
Scales, Transformations, and [KS] Ch. 2
Norms (Part 1)
Introduction to SPSS
Scales, Transformations, and
Norms (Part 2)
SPSS Descriptive
Correlation Analysis
[KS] Ch. 3
SPSS Correlation
Public Holiday - Lunar New Year
Scale Construction (Part 1)
[KJ] Ch. 9
Test Development
Scale Construction (Part 2)
[KS] Ch. 6 (pp. 157-170)
Quiz 1
Theory of Summated Scores
[GCZ] Ch. 7 (pp. 154
177)
Construction of Scale Scores
Reliability (Part 1)
[AY] Ch. 3
[KS] Ch. 4
Discussion of Quiz 1
Reliability (Part 2)
[AY] Ch. 4
SPSS Reliability
Validity (Part 1)
[KS] Ch. 5
Quiz 2
Validity (Part 2)
Discussion of Quiz 2
Factor Analysis
[S] Ch. 5 (pp. 90107,
116-225)
Item Analysis
[KS] Ch. 6 (pp. 170-183)
SPSS Factor Analysis
Wrap Up and Summary
Quiz 3

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism:

The University places very high importance on honesty in academic work, and has a policy of
zero tolerance on plagiarism. Guidelines on academic honesty are on the website on "Honesty
in Academic Work: A Guide for Students and Teachers"
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.
Guideline about plagiarism
Any assignment (i.e., project, essay, or paper) that shows evidence of plagiarism will be
marked down severely. In simple terms, plagiarism is copying passages and/or ideas from
other sources without referencing those sources. Moreover, when you report someone elses
ideas/findings you must put it in your own words and not merely copy full sentences or parts
of sentences from the source article. It is your responsibility as a scholar-in-training to cite
the ideas and work of others correctly. Please visit the following websites for discussions of
how to recognize and avoid plagiarism.
http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism/introduction.htm
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
http://www.hamilton.edu/writing/style/plagiarism/plagiarism.html
If you commit plagiarism in an assignment, and it is your first offence in the course, the
penalty will range from a minimum of a single letter grade reduction in score on the
assignment to a maximum of failure on the assignment. A second offence within the same
course will result in a minimum penalty of a single letter grade reduction in the course grade
to a maximum penalty of course failure. The specific penalty applied is up to the discretion of
the professor. In all cases of plagiarism, the student's name will be recorded in a central
database maintained by the general office. If a student is referred for plagiarism in more than
one course, or more than one instance in the same course, the student's case will be forwarded
to the university administration for follow-up action.
Detecting plagiarism
The Senate Committee on Teaching and Learning requires that all student assignments in
undergraduate programmes should be submitted via VeriGuide. This policy will only apply to
assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based (i.e.,
excluding calculations in science, brief laboratory reports, drawings in fine arts and
architecture, etc.).

Each student must upload a soft copy of the completed assignment to the plagiarism
detection engine VeriGuide, at
https://academic.veriguide.org/academic/login_CUHK.jspx
The system will issue a receipt which also contains a declaration of honesty, which is
the same as that in
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/Eng%20htm%20files%20(201314)/p09.htm
The declaration should be signed, and the receipt stapled to a hard copy of the
assignment upon submission.
Assignments without the receipt will not be graded by teachers.

PLEASE SIGN AND RETURN:

I declare that the assignment here submitted is original except for source material
explicitly acknowledged. I also acknowledge that I am aware of University policy
and regulations on honesty in academic work, and of the disciplinary guidelines and
procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations, as contained in the
website http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

_____________________________
Signature

______________________________
Date

_____________________________
Name

____________________________________
Student ID

PSYC 5120
Course Code

Psychological Testing and Measurement

Course Title