PSYCH ASS

• Psychological test


  A systematic procedure for obtaining samples of behavior, relevant to cognitive, affective, or interpersonal functioning, and for scoring and evaluating those samples according to standards
• Psychological tests are simply behavior samples. Everything else is based on inferences
• Standardized psychological tests


  • The procedure for administration, scoring, and interpretation is uniform
  • Standards are used for evaluating test results based on a normative or standardization sample
• Scale


  • A whole test made up of several parts
  • A subtest or set of items within a test that measures a distinct and specific characteristic
  • An array of subtests that share some common characteristic
  • A separate instrument made up of items designed to evaluate a single characteristic
  • The numerical system used to rate or to report value on some measured dimension
• Scaling


  The process of arriving at the sequencing of the items in a scale
• Battery


  A group of several tests or subtests that are administered at one time to one person
• Psychological tests


  • They are tools, a means to an end and never an end in themselves
  • They can be exceedingly helpful when used appropriately and skillfully, but can also be misused in ways that may limit or thwart their usefulness and even result in harmful consequences
• Tests are products primarily marketed to and used by professional psychologists and educators
• Test authors are usually academicians or investigators mainly interested in psychological theorizing or research, rather than in practical applications or profits
• Test users are most interested in the appropriateness and utility of the tests they use for their own purposes, whereas test publishers are naturally inclined to consider the profit to be made from selling tests foremost
• Test users may administer, score, and interpret the results of tests they have selected or may delegate one or more of these functions to others under their supervision
• Antecedents of modern psychological testing

  • Competitive examinations in ancient Chinese empire to select individuals for government positions
  • Oral and written examinations in medieval European universities
  • Early tests developed in Germany and France in late 19th century for assessing cognitive functioning in patients
  • Experimental psychology research and development of apparatus and standardized procedures in the late 19th century
• Contributions of Francis Galton


  • Collected data on physical and physiological characteristics, discovered regression and correlation, invented devices for measurement, initiated use of questionnaires and word association, pioneered twin-study method
  • Tried to devise a way of assessing intellectual capacity of children and adolescents through tests
• Contributions of James McKeen Cattell

  • Tried to link various measures of simple discriminative, perceptive, and associative power to independent estimates of intellectual level
• Contributions of Hermann Ebbinghaus


  • Devised a technique of having children fill in blanks in text passages, which proved to be an effective gauge of intellectual ability
• Contributions of Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon

  • Published the first useful instrument for the measurement of general cognitive abilities or global intelligence in 1905
• IQ


  The mental quotient obtained by dividing the mental age score on the Binet-Simon scale by the chronological age and multiplying by 100
• Contributions of Charles Spearman

  • Developed and expanded the use of correlational methods, provided the conceptual foundation for factor analysis, devised a theory of intelligence emphasizing a general intelligence factor (g)
• Army Alpha and Army Beta tests


  • Developed during World War I to assess verbal, numerical, and reasoning abilities, practical judgment and general information of recruits
• Standardized achievement tests


  • Measures of arithmetic, reading, spelling and other subjects, used in educational settings, licensing and certification of professionals, personnel selection
• Scholastic aptitude tests


  • Used to select candidates for graduate and professional schools, e.g. SAT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT
• Tests of special skills and aptitudes

  • Developed for occupational selection, based on job analysis and correlation with job performance
• Multiple aptitude batteries


  • Developed based on the realization that intelligence is not a unitary concept and human abilities comprise separate and relatively independent factors
• Measures of interests


  • Originated for vocational guidance and later used in personnel selection, e.g. Strong Interest Inventory
• Personality inventories


  • First device of this kind was the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet
• The breakthrough in this particular area of testing took place in 1924, when M. J. Ream developed an empirical key that differentiated the responses of successful and unsuccessful salesmen on the Carnegie Interest Inventory developed by Yoakum and his students at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1921
• Empirical criterion keying


  A technique that, after refinements such as cross-validation procedures and extensions to other occupations, would be used in the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), first published in 1927, and in other types of inventories as well
• The current version of the SVIB—called the Strong Interest Inventory (Strong)—is one of the most widely used interest inventories and has been joined by many more instruments of this type
• Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (P-D Sheet)


  A questionnaire developed during World War I to screen recruits who might suffer from mental illnesses, consisting of 116 statements regarding feelings, attitudes, and behaviors indicative of psychopathology
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)


  The most successful personality inventory of that era, which, although revised and reworked in various ways, still survives today
• The original MMPI combined items from the P-D Sheet and other inventories, but used the empirical criterion keying technique pioneered with the SVIB
• Rorschach test


  A test consisting of ten inkblots to be presented for interpretation, one at a time, to the examinee, providing a standardized method for obtaining and interpreting subjects' responses that reflect their unique modes of perceiving and relating to the world
• The major impetus for the scientific and clinical study of brain–behavior relationships, which is the subject of neuropsychology, came from Kurt Goldstein's investigations of the difficulties he observed in soldiers who had sustained brain injuries during World War I
• Organicity


  A term used as a synonym for brain damage, which was initially viewed as an all-or-none condition with a common set of symptoms
• Brain damage is no longer viewed as an all-or-none condition of organicity with a common set of symptoms, but rather as a huge range of possible disorders resulting from the interaction of specific genetic and environmental factors in each individual case
• Psychological assessment


  A flexible, not standardized, process aimed at reaching a defensible determination concerning one or more psychological issues or questions, through the collection, evaluation, and analysis of data appropriate to the purpose at hand
• Steps in the assessment process

  1. Identify goals

  2. Select appropriate instruments

  3. Administer and score instruments

  4. Interpret data

  5. Communicate conclusions
• The APA Task Force on Test User Qualifications outlines the core knowledge and skills essential to those who use tests to make decisions or formulate policies that affect the lives of test takers, as well as the expertise required for the use of tests in specific contexts such as employment, education, career counseling, health care, and forensic work
• Measurement


  The use of certain devices or rules for assigning numbers to objects or events, which makes a phenomenon more easily subject to confirmation and analysis, and thus more objective
• Variable


  Anything that varies