Psychological testing
Scores are thought to reflect individual or group differences in the construct the test purports to measure.
[1][2] According to Anastasi and Urbina, psychological tests involve observations made on a "carefully chosen sample [emphasis authors] of an individual's behavior.
"[1] A psychological test is often designed to measure unobserved constructs, also known as latent variables.
Psychological tests can include a series of tasks, problems to solve, and characteristics (e.g., behaviors, symptoms) the presence of which the respondent affirms/denies to varying degrees.
Questionnaire- and interview-based scales typically differ from psychoeducational tests, which ask for a respondent's maximum performance.
This item requires knowledge of football (soccer) to be answered correctly, not just mathematical ability.
In test construction, it is important to establish invariance at least for the subgroups of the population of interest.
"[7] Each assessment is a process that involves integrating information from multiple sources, such as personality inventories, ability tests, symptom scales, interest inventories, and attitude scales, as well as information from personal interviews.
Examples of assessments include providing a diagnosis,[7] identifying a learning disability in schoolchildren,[8] determining if a defendant is mentally competent,[9][10] and selecting job applicants.
It contributed to identifying individuals with intellectual disabilities for the purpose of humanely providing them with an alternative form of education.
[14][15] In 1905 French psychologists Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon published the Échelle métrique de l'Intelligence (Metric Scale of Intelligence), known in English-speaking countries as the Binet–Simon test.
Binet and Simon intended that the test be used to aid in identifying schoolchildren who were intellectually challenged, which in turn would pave the way for providing the children with professional help.
One of the earliest modern personality tests was the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, a self-report inventory developed during World War I to be used by the United States Army for the purpose of screening potential soldiers for mental health problems and identifying victims of shell shock (the instrument was completed too late to be used for the purposes it was designed for).
Some of the elements of test development involve the following: The term sample of behavior refers to an individual's performance on tasks that have usually been prescribed beforehand.
A score on a well-constructed test is believed to reflect a psychological construct such as achievement in a school subject like vocabulary or mathematics knowledge, cognitive ability, dimensions of personality such as introversion/extraversion, etc.
A score on an achievement test is believed to reflect the individual's knowledge of a subject area.
[24] An attitude scale assesses an individual's disposition regarding an event (e.g., a Supreme Court decision), person (e.g., a governor), concept (e.g., wearing face masks during a pandemic), organization (e.g., the Boy Scouts), or object (e.g., nuclear weapons) on a unidimensional favorable-unfavorable attitude continuum.
[1] The Biographical Information Blanks or BIB is a paper-and-pencil form that includes items that ask about detailed personal and work history.
[26] Examples of clinical assessments include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV,[27] Child Behavior Checklist,[28] Symptom Checklist 90[29] and the Beck Depression Inventory.
[31] The purpose may be clinical, such as to establish a pre-intervention baseline of a child's hyperactive or aggressive classroom behaviors or to observe the nature of parent-child interaction in order to understand a relational disorder.
The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA)[33] is an example of a direct observation procedure that is used with school-age children and parents.
The Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment[34] is used to study parents and young children and involves a feeding and a puzzle task.
The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-II[36] tracks the extent to which children follow the commands of parents and vice versa and is well suited to the study of children with Oppositional Defiant Disorders and their parents.
[38][39] Neuropsychological tests are designed to assess behaviors that are linked to brain structure and function.
An examiner, following strict pre-set procedures, administers the test to a single person in a quiet room largely free of distractions.
Scores on norm-referenced achievement tests are associated with percentile ranks vis-á-vis other individuals who are the test-taker's age or grade.
[47] Vocations within the public safety field (e.g., fire service, law enforcement, corrections, emergency medical services) are often required to take industrial or organizational psychological tests for initial employment and promotion.
Tests to assess specific psychological constructs can be found by conducting a database search.
