Basic concepts in psychological testing

BASIC CONCEPTS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

Objective

Define the basic terms pertaining to psychological and educational tests

TESTS

are measurement devices or techniques used to quantify behavior, to aid in the understanding and prediction of behavior.

An ITEM is a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly.This response can be evaluated or scored.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST or educational test is a set of items that is designed to measure characteristics of human beings that pertain to behavior.

TYPES OF TESTSINDIVIDUAL TESTS: those that can be given to only one person at a time

GROUP TESTS: can be administered to more than one person at a given time by a single examiner.

CATEGORIES OF TESTS :according to the type of behavior that they measure

1. Different types of ability1.1 ACHIEVEMENT: refers to previous learning

1.2 APTITUDE: potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill (given a certain amount of training, education or experience)

1.3 INTELLIGENCE: refers to a person’s general potential to solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances, think abstractly and profit from experience

ALL THREE (achievement, aptitude, intelligence) are highly interrelated- NO clear-cut distinction

BUT there is a clear-cut distinction between ability tests and personality tests.

PERSONALITY TESTS: are related to the overt and covert DISPOSITIONS of the individual. They measure TYPICAL behaviors.

TYPES OF PERSONALITY TESTS

1.STRUCTURED PERSONALITY TESTS: provide a statement, usually of a “self-report” variety and require the subject to choose between 2 or more alternative responses.

2. PROJECTIVE PERSONALITY TESTS: UNstructured; either the stimulus (of the test) or the response – or both-- are AMBIGUOUS.

SPONTANEOUS response is required of the test takers

Projective tests assumes that a person’s interpretation of an ambiguous stimulus will reflect his or her unique characteristics.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING refers to all possible uses, applications and underlying concepts of psychological and educational tests.