Psychological Tests: What Are They and Why Do We Need Them?

Question 1

Why do we have psychological tests

Answer 1

• classification
• diagnosis and treatment planning
• self knowledge
• program evaluation
• research

Question 2

psychological test

Answer 2

• an OBJECTIVE procedure for sampling and quantifying human behaviour
• TO MAKE inferences about a particular psychological construct or constructs
• USING standardised stimuli and methods of administration and scoring

Question 3

History of psychological testing

China (Han Dynasty – 206 B.C.E to 200 C.E)

Answer 3

o batteries for a range of issues

o jobs within the public office and used until the early years of the twentieth century

Question 4

History of psychological testing

Britain (early 19th century)

Answer 4

o Class distinctions = inheritance of intelligence linked to inheritance of social position
o incongruent with the major scientific drive at the time.

TWO METHODS WERE DEVELOPED IN OPPOSITION TO THIS BELIEF SYSTEM;
o Experimental: Used the scientific method to quantify psychological phenomena.
o Observational: Originally hypothesised by Darwin and then applied specifically to human behaviour by Sir Francis Galton

Question 5

France (late 19th century) MERITOCRACY

Answer 5

o An individual’s worth is determined by their ability and merit
o developed categories in community; Determined who should be leading and who should be under-classed

Question 6

Binet

Answer 6

• children who would benefit from special education through intelligence test. –> the first of the modern intelligence tests

performance on a range of different problems can be aggregated to yield an overall estimate of, in his terms, mental age

Question 7

mental age;

Answer 7

child’s standing among children of different chronological ages in terms of his or her cognitive capacity.

Question 8

stanford-binet test

Answer 8

 Binet’s test assimilated in the cultural milieu
 Standford-binet (Lewis Terman) dominated intelligence tests for individuals aged from 3 years to 16 years –> until David Wechsler

Question 9

Practical performance test

Answer 9

• Binet’s test led to a demand in practical or performance tests of ability that did not depend on verbal skills or exposure to mainstream formal schooling.
• Stanley Porteus –> mazes for assessing comprehension and foresight – forerunner for tests that weren’t just dependent on English and verbal

Question 10

WW1 and screening

Answer 10

Clarence Yoakum and Robert Yerkes and colleagues developed two group tests of general mental ability for recruiting US armed services during the First World War.

Question 11

The Army Alpha test

Answer 11

assessing the ability levels of those who could read and write

Question 12

The Army Beta test

Answer 12

those who were not literate.

Question 13

Wechsler intelligence test (contemporary)

Answer 13

• adopted basic structure of WW1 and developed the Verbal and Performance subscales for his test of adult intelligence.
• Non-verbal scales (reasoning and matrix manipulation and much more visual constructs)
• Multiple facets of IQ
• overall assessment of intellectual level and diagnosing ( psychiatric settings)

superior to the Stanford-Binet.
o content more age appropriate
o replaced mental age scoring method with the Deviation IQ method,

Question 14

WW1 and Robert Woodworth

Answer 14

• first self-report personality test.
• screening for psychological adjustment to military situation
  o short questions identified from psychiatry textbooks and other expert sources.
  o military psychiatrist (starting being led by a specialist)
  o a forerunner for personality tests

Question 15

Minnesota Multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI) - Starke Hathaway and John McKinley

Answer 15

o discriminate between those without symptoms of mental illness (‘normals’) and patient groups with particular diagnoses.
o 566 items, heterogeneous in content, and sophisticated

o four validity scales for the purpose of identifying various forms of untruthful responding by the test taker that could invalidate inferences drawn from the content scales

Question 16

mental test

Answer 16

o a supplement to the unaided diagnostic ability of the doctor or psychiatrist.

o ‘objective’, –> method of scoring is sufficiently straightforward for two or more scorers of the same test performance to agree closely on the final score.

Question 17

Projective tests

Answer 17

• required judgment in their scoring.

- psychodynamic theorising -> the operation of unconscious motivational effects – freud

Question 18

Hermann Rorschach test

Answer 18

a series of blots gave rise to meaningless designs that the patient was asked to make sense of.

Question 19

projective hypothesis

Answer 19

test takers draw on own psychic resources and thus demonstrate something of the workings of their mind.
-spurred more tests

Question 20

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Henry Murray Christiana Morgan,

Answer 20

• second most widely used projective technique after the Rorschach.
• describing ambiguous scenes.
• Used in WW2
• business organisations for the selection and promotion of senior executives and used in organisational psychology

Question 21

Personality tests

Answer 21

o measure behaviour rather than ability

• Measured traits
  o Structured
  o MMPI (much more scientific and objective)
  o Psychometrically sound – Factor analysis

Question 22

‘Assessment

Answer 22

high-level reasoning process involved in the application of psychological procedures to the individual case, and henceforth almost completely replaced the term ‘mental testing’.

Question 23

Bias and Misuse (eugenics)

Answer 23

Galton
- improving human species through selective parenthood

Goodard
o Culturally biased version of the Stanford-Binet Scale to screen immigrants – “feebleminded” people should be sterilised or institutionalised
o Ideas adopted by Nazi Germany

Jensen
- 60s and 70s – Genetic basis for IQ Psychological testing can be very powerful.

Question 24

test - objective

Answer 24

• Gauge an individual’s ability
• Score and categorised

Example: child behavioural problems testing will measure a child’s behaviour

Question 25

assessment- objective

Answer 25

• Answer a referral question
• Solve a problem
• Uses multiple tools of evaluation

Example- childhood behavioural problems

• Will ascertain a diagnosis through;
• Interviews
• Rating behaviour
• Observations
• Measuring cognitive ability
• Examine history and social factors

Question 26

test- process

Answer 26

Administer and score in accordance to specific rules (manual for use)

Example: vocational testing
- Testing will administer a score and a measure

Question 27

assessment - process

Answer 27

Consider processes beyond the score and how individuals got a score

Example: vocational testing

• Assessment will select tests (or part of tests) with consideration of individual factors
• Interview
• Rating behaviour
• Observations
• Measuring cognitive ability
• Examine history and social factors

Question 28

test - evaluator role

Answer 28

Should have no influence

Example clinical testing:
- Testing; administer a standardised depression inventory

Question 29

assessment- evaluator role

Answer 29

• Key to process
• Selection of tools and formulation of conclusions

Example: clinical testing
Assessment: formulates a diagnosis base on
-	Interview
-	Observing behaviour/ presentation
-	Measuring behaviour
-	Examining history and social factors

Question 30

test- outcome

Answer 30

The final score

Example Geriatric testing
- Testing- indicates level of functioning

Question 31

assessment - outcome

Answer 31

Answer to referral question

Example Geriatric testing
Assessment- decision regarding ability to live independently or requirement of assisted living

Question 32

7 assumptions of psychological assessment and testing

Answer 32

1) Psychological traits and states exist
2) Psychological traits and states can be quantified and measured
3) Test-related behaviour predicts non-test-related behaviour
4) Tests and other measurement techniques have strengths and weaknesses
5) Various sources of error are part of the measurement process
6) Testing can be conducted in a fair and unbiased manner
7) Testing/assessment benefits society

Question 33

Obsolescence test

Answer 33

the notion that a psychological test loses its utility because the theory that it was based on has been shown to be wrong, or because the content of its items is no longer appropriate because of social or cultural change

Question 34

Psychometric properties:

Answer 34

the criteria that a psychological test has to fulfil in order to be useful; they include how accurate and reproducible the test scores are, and how well the test measures what it intends to measure

Question 35

a criterion-referenced test,

Answer 35

a standard of performance is determined in advance by some empirical method, and the test taker’s performance is compared with this standard in determining whether they pass or fail.

not compared to others just the standard

driving test or exam

Question 36

norm reference test

Answer 36

performance of the individual is related to the performance of a group of individuals similar to the test taker in important respects (e.g. age, gender, educational level and cultural background). How well or badly a person has performed is thus assessed against what the average person can do, or what the norm is.

-norm-referenced test: a psychological test that uses the performance of a representative group of people (i.e. the norm) on the test for evaluating the performance of a test taker

Question 37

self report tests

Answer 37

• psychological test that requires test takers to report their behaviour or experience;
• administered individually or in a group
• take less time to complete and can be given multiple people at once
• interest is in typical behaviour—what the person frequently does, as in the case of personality and attitude.
• M test

Question 38

performance tests

Answer 38

o performance test: a psychological test that requires test takers to respond by answering questions or solving problems;

• usually administered individually
• provide information about what the person can actually do as to what they say they can do.
  o assessing the limits of what a person can do, such as in assessing their aptitudes or abilities.
  a. The WAIS-IV

Question 39

number of individuals who can be administered the tests

Answer 39

o WAIS–IV (Wechsler) can only be administered to one person face-to-face,
o Raven’s Progressive Matrices - administered individually or to a group.
o individually administered tests allow psychologists to observe the performance of the person tested and to follow up and clarify the answers if needed.