PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

AND ASSESSMENT
QUICKNOTES BY:
Kristine Confesor
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT
Based on: 2012 Edition book of
Kaplan and Saccuzzo

I.

II.

III.

a.

2.
3.
4.
5.

Principles
- Introduction
- Norms and Basic Statistics for Testing
- Correlation and Regression
- Reliability
- Validity
- Writing and Evaluating Test Items
- Test Administration

Types of Tests
1.
Individual tests can be given to only one person at a time
2.
Group tests more than one person at a time by a single
examiner
I.
Ability Tests measure skills in terms of speed, accuracy, or
both
a.
Achievement Test - previous learning
b.
Aptitude potential for learning or acquiring
specific skill
c.
Intelligence persons general potential to solve
problems, adapt to changing circumstances, think
abstractly, and profit from experience.

Applications
- Interviewing Techniques
- Theories of Intelligence and Binet Scales
- The Wechsler Intelligence Scales: WAIS-IV, WISC-IV,
and WPPSI-III
- Other individual Tests of Ability in Education and
Special Education
- Standardized Tests in Education, Civil Service, and
the Military
- Applications in Clinical and Counseling Settings
- Projective Personality Tests
- Computers and Basic Psychological Science and
Testing
- Testing in Counseling Psychology
- Testing in Health Psychology and Health Care
- Testing in Industrial and Business Settings

II.

Issues
-Test Bias
-Testing and the Law
- Ethics and Future of Psychological Testing

- IntroductionPsychological test educational test or a set of items that are

designed to measure characteristics of human beings that pertain
to behaviour.
Psychological Assessment gathering and integration of
psychology-related data for the purpose of making a psychological
evaluation that is accomplished through the use of such tools as
tests, interviews, case studies, behavioural observation, and
specially designed apparatuses and measurement procedures
o
Collaborative assessor and assesse may work
as partners from initial contract through final
feedback
o
Therapeutic therapeutic self-discovery and new
understandings are encouraged throughout the
entire assessment process
o
Dynamic interactive approach to psychological
assessment that usually follows a model of (1)
evaluation, (2) intervention, (3) evaluation

Scales relate raw scores on test items to some defined theoretical or

empirical distribution
Scoring process of assigning such evaluative codes or statements to
performance on tests, tasks, interviews, or other behaviour
samples.
o
Cut Score any reference point, usually
numerical, divided by judgment and used to divide
a set of data into two or more classifications
the parties to a Test?
Test Developers and Publishers
Test User
Testtaker
Society at large

Personality Tests measure typical behaviour- traits,

temperaments, and dispositions
a.
Structured (objective): provides a self-report
statement to which the person responds True or
False, Yes or No
b.
Projective: provides an ambiguous test stimulus;
response requirements are unclear

HISTORICAL, CULTURAL, and LEGAL/ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Han Dynasty: use of test batteries (two or more tests used in
conjunction)
Ming Dynasty: national multistage testing program involved local and
regional testing centers equipped with special testing booths; series of
tests for public office
1855: British government copied the Chinese system for employee
selection and for its civil service
1883: US government established American Civil Service Commission

PRINCIPLES

Who are
1.
2.
3.
4.

School Ability Tests identify children w/ special

needs
b.
Achievement Tests evaluates accomplishments
or the degree of learning that has taken place
c.
Diagnostic Tests tool of assessment used to help
narrow down and identify areas of deficit to be
targeted for intervention
Clinical Settings
Counseling Settings
Geriatric Settings
Business and Military Settings

Charles Darwin higher forms of life evolved partially because

of individual differences within a species
Francis Galton: individual differences exist in human sensory
and motor functioning such as reaction time, visual acuity, and
physical strength.
Karl Pearson: developed the product-moment correlation
technique
Wilhelm Max Wundt: formulated a general description of
human abilities with respect to variables such as reaction time,
perception, and attention span; focused on how people are
similar
James Mckeen Cattell : coined the term mental test based on
Galtons work on individual differences in reaction time.
o
Also instrumental in founding the Psychological
Corporation with a goal for the advancement of
psychology and the promotion of the useful
applications of psychology.
Charles Spearman: originating the concept of test reliability as
well as building the mathematical framework for the statistics of
factor analysis
Victor Henri: collaborated with Binet on papers suggesting how
mental tests could be used to measure higher mental processes
Emil Kraepelin: early experimenter with the word association
technique as a formal test
Light Witmer: little known founder of clinical psychology and
founded the journal Psychological Clinic having its first article
entitled as Clinical Psychology

20th Century

Settings
1. Educational Settings

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Alfred Binet and Victor Henri: 1895, published several articles

which they argued for the measurement of abilities such as
memory and social comprehension

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
AND ASSESSMENT
QUICKNOTES BY:
Kristine Confesor

Binet Simon Scale 1905, contained 30 items of increasing

difficulty and was designed to identify intellectually subnormal
individuals; concept of mental age was made.
David Weschler, 1939: intelligence was the aggregate or global
capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally,
and to deal effectively with the environment
o
Group Intelligence Test: came into being in the
US in response to the militarys need for an
efficient method of screening the intellectual
ability of World War I recruits
Stanford Binet Scale revision made by Terman on 1916
WWI- they army requested the assistance of Yerkes, APA
president to create a committee of distinguished psychologists to
develop 2 structured group tests of human abilities: They Army
Alpha and the Army Beta.
Achievement Tests: provide multiple choice questions that are
standardized on a large sample to produce norms against which
the results of new examinees can be compared.

SCALES OF MEASUREMENT

Properties
1.
Magnitude property of moreness. A scale has the
property of magnitude if we can say that a particular
instance of the attribute represents more, less, or equal
amounts of the given quantity than does another instance.
2.
Equal Intervals if the difference between two points at
any place o the scale has the same meaning as the
difference between two other points that differ by the
same number of scale units.
3.
Absolute Zero- when nothing of the property being
measured exists.
Type of Scale

Magnitude

Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

No
Yes
Yes
Yes

Equal
Intervals
No
No
Yes
Yes

Absolute 0
No
No
No
Yes

Measurement of Personality

Personality Tests (1920-1940) measured presumably stable

characteristics or traits that theoretically underlie behaviour.
o

o
o
o
o
o

Traits

relatively
enduring
dispositions
(tendencies to act, think, or feel in a certain
manner in any given circumstance) that
distinguish one individual from another.
Robert S Woodworth measure of adjustment
and emotional stability that could be administered
quickly and efficiently to group of recruits
(Personal Data Sheet)
Woodworth Personal Data Sheet an early
structured personality test that assumed that a
test response can be taken at face value
Projective Tests an individual is assumed to
project onto some ambiguous stimulus his or her
own unique needs, fears, hopes, and motivation.
Rorschach Inkblot test: highly controversial
projective test that provided an ambiguous
stimulus and asked the subject what it might be
Thematic Apperception test: projective test
that provided ambiguous pictures and asked
subjects to make up a story
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI): structured personality test that made no
assumptions about the meaning of a test
response. Such meaning was to be determined by
empirical research
16PF: A structured personality test based on the
statistical procedure of factor analysis

Ordinal: IQ Tests
Interval: Temperature on C and F
Ratio: Kelvin Scale; Yards, Speed

Frequency Distributions displays scores on a variable or

a measure to reflect how frequently each value was
obtained.
Positive Skew relatively few scores fall at the high end of
the distribution (e.g. the test was too difficult)
Negative Skew When relatively few of the scores fall at
the low end of the distribution (e.g. the test was too easy)
Percentile Rank an expression of the percentage of
people whose score on a test or measure falls below a
particular raw score, or a converted score that refers to a
percentage of testtakers; contrast with percentage correct

P = B/N x 100 = percentile rank of Xi

P= percentile rank
X,= score of interest
B = number of scores below X,
N= total number of scores

Percentiles specific scores or points within a distribution;

divide the total frequency for a set of observations into
hundredths.

DESCRIBING DISTRIBUTIONS
1.
Mean arithmetic average score in a distribution
2.
Standard Deviation approximation of the average deviation
around the mean; square root of variance

Culture and Assessment

Culture socially transmitted behaviour patterns, beliefs, and

products of work of a particular population, community, or group
of people
Henry S Goddard highly instrumental in getting Binets test
adopted for use in various settings in the US who raised
questions about how meaningful such tests are when used with
people from various cultural language and backgrounds
Verbal Communication language is a key yet sometimes
overlooked variable in the assessment process.

3.

( X X)
N

Variance measure of variability equal to the arithmetic mean of

the squares of the differences between the scores in a
distribution and their mean
2

( X X )
N

Norms and Basic Statistics for Testing

Tests devices used to translate observations into numbers

Purpose of Statistics
o
Descriptive Statistics are methods used to provide a
concise description of a collection of quantitative
information
o
Inferential Statistics used to make inferences from
observations of a small group of people known as a sample
to a larger group of individuals known as population.

4.

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Z Score transforms data into standardized units that are easier

to interpret; difference between a score and the mean, divided
by the standard deviation

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
AND ASSESSMENT
QUICKNOTES BY:
Kristine Confesor

X,X
z =
S

4.

Scatterplot useful in revealing curvilinearity in a relationship

(eyeball guage of how curved the graphy is

Regression analysis of relationships among variables for the

purpose of understanding how one variable may predict another.
Simple Regression X (predictor variable); Y (outcome variable);
results in an equation for a regression line.
Regression Line line of best fit
Multiple Regression takes into account the intercorrelations
among all variables involved; correlation among predictor scores

- Correlation and Regression

Expression of degree and direction of correspondence between two
thing.
Coefficient of Correlation numerical index that expresses this
relationship: It tells us the extent to which X and Y are co-related.

Pearson r when the relationship is linear and when the two

variables being correlated are continuous

Coefficient of Determination indication of how much variance

is shared by the X- and the Y- variables.

Spearman Rho rank-order correlation coefficient when sample

size is fewer than 30 and when both sets of measurements are in
ordinal or rank-order form.
GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF CORRELATION
1. Bivariate distribution
2. Scatter Diagram
3. Scattergram

Meta-analysis family of techniques used to statistically combine

information across studies to produce single estimates of the
statistics beig studied

Culture and Inference

Reliability
Validity
Writing and Evaluating Test Items
Test Administration

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