Describe Psychological Tests

Describe Psychological Tests Abstract When I observed the psychological tests, I could find a large number of very important psychological tests, which have various characteristics and practical usages. However, when considering the psychological tests, I found that those tests have gradually developed past, and changing present and there is no doubt that there will be a well developed future. In my assignment, I have taken an effort to present a brief history of psychological tests, their gradual development and practical usage of psychological tests. I also hope to present a brief account of various norms of psychological tests and most widely used psychological tests. Describe Psychological Tests. It is true that there are a lot of tests in this world for measuring many things. Among all those tests psychological tests hold a major place. Actually, simply we can define a psychological test as some kind of tool that is used to measure differences between individuals or between reactions of same individual under different circumstances. In another way a psychological test asses and evaluate information that a person gives to the examiner (mostly to a professional psychologist). As Anastasi and Urbina noted, a psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized measurement of sample of behavior. Psychological tests are like the tests in any other science, insofar as observations are made on a small but carefully chosen sample of an individual behavior (p. 4). When considering the history of psychological tests, Chinese influence is very much important. Despite it, the French physicans Esquirol, Seguin are very important. Then very important person in the history of the psychological tests was, Dawin’s cousin British scholar Francis Galton (1822-1911) who introduced the development measures of central tendency and also developed the concept of correlation. He built an anthropometric laboratory at the international exposition of 1884. James McKeen Cattell, (1860-1944) another well known psychologist developed various types of tests which were able to predict a child’s scholastic achievement and used the word ‘‘mental test’’ for the first time in the psychological testing history. Next Karl Pearson (1857-1936) was very important for well-known statistical concept; the product moment correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r). The French psychologist Alfred Binet was the first psychologist who made a test for mental retarded children and believed that intelligence could be nurtured. During the first world war Robert Yerkes developed Army Alpha and Army Beta intelligence tests to test soldiers of the United Nation. In 1908, Henry Goddard translated the Binet test into English. Then, in 1914, William Stern suggested “Intelligence Quotient’’ (IQ). David Wechsler developed world widely used intelligence scales WAIS and WISC. With the contribution of above mentioned psychologists and many other psychologists have done a lot of things for the present development of psychological tests. The psychological tests are very much helpful to recognize a person’s thoughts and characteristics. So these tests are used world widely to recognize a person’s attitudes, personality, likes and dislikes etc. Those tests are highly used by various organizations, companies, educational institutes and army forces to select the best persons for their institutes. There are many psychological tests, which are mostly used throughout the world. The broad categories of psychological tests simply can be defined as follows. 01. Individual versus Group Tests 02. Computer Assisted Tests 03. Speed versus Power Tests 04. Paper and Pencil versus Performance Tests 05. Content Tests 06. Tests of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. Here, I presented only a simple category. Actually, there are many categories of psychological tests in the world today. Some divide psychological tests simply into two main categories called “Mental Ability Tests’’ and “Personality Tests.’’ Anyway, categorization depends on the person. As Tyler mentions an individual Test is, in effect, an interview in which the examiner asks questions and writes down the testee’ s answers. A group test is set up so that instructions can be given to many testees at the same time, each of them writing his or her own answers ( p.38). In a ‘‘Computer Assisted Test,’’ testee has to face his test with a computer. In a ‘‘Speed Test,’’ actually a person’s score is given on how many questions he or she is able to answer in the time allowed. In contrast in a ‘‘Power Test,’’ testee’s score depends on the difficulty of the questions he or she can answer. In ‘‘Paper and Pencil versus Performance’’ test, testee is given the chance to think about the problems presented to him or her and writes down the results. In the performance tests, the testee is directed to handle the test materials themselves as toys, picture cards or blocks. According to Tyler, ‘‘These are (performance tests) tests, which do not entail a knowledge of some language, include ‘‘construction’’ and ‘‘imitation’’ tests a series of graded maze tests, a picture completion test.’’(p.23). The next category ‘‘Content’’ which the main distinction is between language and non-language test (verbal and non-verbal test). This test should not be misunderstood with paper and pencil tests, which can fall in either the language or non-language category, and so can performance tests. Actually, written non- language tests mostly use pictures than words or numbers; even the directions can be given in pantomime. In the same way, within each of these main content divisions other important distinctions based on content tests are possible-for an instance verbal versus numerical or pictorial views geometrical. ‘‘Tests of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities’’ normally measure a person’s cognitive abilities like intelligence, various special skills and abilities that a person has. Above classification of psychological tests is categorized considering only their major features. There may be sub-classes within these categories. There are personality tests, achievement tests, intelligence tests, aptitude tests etc. Those tests may be belonged to above-mentioned tests. Personality tests measure a person’s personal qualities or characteristics. It may be referred to as traits. Normally personality tests have two types. 01. Objective tests (also called Rating Scale or Self-Report) in which a specific stimulus is presented and asked for specific responses (true /false questions). 02. Projective tests (also called Free Response Measure) in which a more ambiguous stimuli and asked for less specific responses (inkblots, drawings, photographs). Tyler has noted that “Obviously, intelligence, special talents and achievement in various fields are components of total personality” ( p.71). The MMPI ,The Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), House-Tree-Person Test, Child Behavior Checklist Children’s Apperception Test (CAT) ( mostly used with children), The famous Rorschach Inkblot Test (1921), Thematic Apperception Test (1935), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI- 2), Millon Clinical Maltiaxial Inventory (MCMI- 2), and The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PFQ) are fine examples for personality tests. Achievement tests measure what a person already has learned. Actually, here a person’s prior activity is measured. Aptitude tests are used to measure a person’s suitability in a particular behavior such as success in school and job performance. Here a person’s potential is measured. In an Aptitude test a person’s verbal ability, numeric ability, abstract reasoning, spatial ability, mechanical reasoning, data checking, word sample, fault diagnosis etc are measured. Intelligence tests usually used to measure a person verbal and non-verbal skills related to academic success and general potential to solve problems. The first intelligence test was Binet-Simon Scale (1905) which became very famous at the time. Then, 1908 Binet-Simon Scale, 1911 Binet-Simon (minor revision), 1912 Kuhlmann -Binet Revision,1937 Revision of the Stanford-Binet, 1939 Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence etc can be taken as intelligence tests. Actually, psychological tests are not magic. They assess and evaluate information that a person gives to a professional psychologist. That may be in the form of answers to interview questions or answers on a paper or, as I mentioned above, facing to questions of a computer. There are many advantages of holding psychological tests rather than clinical interview (though clinical interview itself a psychological test). Actually, it is easier to get information from tests than by clinical interview. In the same way, the information from psychological tests is more scientifically consistent than the information from a clinical interview. Not only that but also it is harder to get away with lying on a test than in a clinical interview. Thus, the psychological tests have become very important. There is a system, various characteristics and various methods, various norms that should be followed when doing a psychological test. Every test taker and every interviewer are bound to follow those rules and regulations when doing any type of psychological test. There are some qualities or characteristics that a test must be included. Very important such two qualities are reliability and validity. Test Reliability According to Anastasi and Urbina, Reliability refers to the consistency of scores obtained by the same persons when they are examined with the same test on different occasions. There are many types of reliability (P.225). Internal Consistency Reliability refers to how well all the test items relate to each other. Test-Retest Reliability refers how well results from one administration of the test relate to result from another administration of the same test at a later time. The Alternate -form Reliability is used to avoid the difficulties encountered in test-retest reliability. In a Split-Half Reliability, normally scores are obtained by dividing the test into equivalent halves in an special occasions. Kuder–Richardson Reliability is used to measure the reliability on the consistency of responses to all items in a test. Test Validity As Barnett, Zucker and Congress say, “Validity is concerned with what a test or procedure measures, or the meaning attributed to test performance, and what generalizations or inferences can be made from test scores or observations. Research results do not validate a test as such, but instead a specific use for the test.” Like the reliability, this also has various categories. Construct Validity refers to the ability of a test to measure the psychological construct such as depression that it was designed to measure. Content validity Refers to the ability of a test to sample adequately the proud range of elements that compose a particular construct. Criterion Related Validity refers to the ability of a test to predict someone’s performance on something. In psychological testing, we have two types of responses.They are: 01.Structured Responses Multiple choice, true/ false, forced choice, Likert scale are fine examples for structured responses. 02.Free Responses Essay, short answer, interview questions, fills in blank, projective techniques can be considered as examples for free responses. For conducting a good psychological test, the place where the psychological test is held should be out of external obstacles. The temperature of the room, noise, the situation of the testee, seating arrangements, time etc may greatly affect on a test. In the same way, the test must be objective. (scoring must be out of bias). So when conducting a psychological test, both the tester and testee have to be very much careful about those things. In the same way, they should consider test norms and standardization of psychological tests. Actually, there are limitations for psychological tests. The uncritical use, rejection of qualified candidates, failing, some negative attitudes towards psychological tests, ethical uses may be obstacles for psychological tests. So those things also must be considered when conducting a psychological test. Conclusion When considering above-mentioned facts we can see that psychological tests have a gradual development. Still, it is continuing. If one observes the internet, he or she will be able to see a large amount of psychological tests. Career tests, relationship tests, health test, just for-fun tests are such tests. Actually, psychological tests are a great blessing of the humankind. But, we have to use them in a good way, because something becomes good or bad by the way it is used. References Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (2002). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Delhi: Pearson Education. Barnett, D. W. & Zucker, K. B. (2007). The personal and social assessment of children.Britain: Library of Congress. Cronbach, L. J., (1949). Essential of psychological testing. New York: Harper & Brothers. Davenport, G. C., (1995). Introducing gcse psychology. London: Collins Educational. Guilford, J. P. (1959). Personality. New York: McGraw-Hill. Intelligence Test. (2008, Fbruary 3). Retrieved October 11,2010, from PsychWiki: http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/intelligence test. Tyler, L. E., (1963). Tests and measurements. United States of America: Library of Congress. Testing. (2009,June 18). 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