The National Teachers College

School of Advanced Studies

GC 502 PSYCHOMETRICS
Cesar Chester O. Relleve, MA Ed,
RGC

Course Objective
This course provides basic concepts,
principles, types, uses administration, scoring
and interpretation of various psychological tests.
From the aforementioned topics, the Guidance
majors will obtain an in-depth knowledge and
understanding of the course and become aware
of the ethical and professional standards in
testing. This can be done by providing the
graduate students an authentic experience
through socialize discussions and hands on
administration scoring and interpretation on
various psychological test.

Course Objective
Guidance majors are expected to master the
administration, scoring and interpretation of the
test which will be used for research and
evaluation. This will also make them more
effective and efficient school counselors
responsive to the needs of the clientele in and
out of the country.

Your cumulative score are describe and

interpreted as follows:
Cumulativ Numerical
e Scores
Scale
271-300
99
240-270

96

A-

Qualitative
Descriptio
n
Outstandin
g
Superior

209-239

93

B+

Very Good

178-208

90

Good

147-177

87

B-

Fair

Failed

146 or

Letter
Grade
A

Psychometrics
is the field of study concerned with the theory
and technique
of psychological measurement, which
includes the measurement of knowledge,
abilities, attitudes, personality traits,
and educational measurement.
The field is primarily concerned with the
construction and validation of measurement
instruments such as questionnaires, tests,
and personality assessments.

Psychometrics

Psychometrician is one who constructs and

develops tests.
In the Philippines, the one in charge of the
testing activities of the school is usually
called the Psychometrician, this is a
misnomer, the correct term is psychometrist
(Villar, 2009)

RA10029 Philippine Psychology Act of 2009

Article I Sec 3(d)

"Psychometrician" means a natural person

who holds a valid certificate of registration
and a valid professional identification card
as psychometrician issued by the
Professional Regulatory Board of
Psychology and the Professional
Regulation Commission pursuant to this
Act. As such, he/she shall be authorized to
do any of the following:

RA10029

Provided, That such shall at all times be

conducted under the supervision of a
licensed professional psychologist:
(1) administering and scoring of objective
personality tests, structured personality tests,
excluding projective tests and other higher level
forms of psychological tests;
(2) interpreting results of the same and preparing
a written report on these results; and
(3) conducting preparatory intake interviews of
clients for psychological intervention sessions.

Psychological Test is essentially an objective and

standardized test of a sample behavior.
Psychological test are like the tests in any other
science, insofar as observations are made on a
small but carefully chosen sample of an
individuals behavior (Anastasi and Urbina,
2009)
Psychological Assessment an extremely
complex process of solving problems (answering
questions) in which psychological tests are often
used as one of the methods of collecting
relevant data"(Maloney & Ward, 1976)

Psychological Assessment usually includes:

Psychological test result/s
interview
demographic information
medical information
personal history
observations by others

Brief History
The roots of testing are lost in antiquity. There
have been repeated accounts of the system
of civil service examinations prevailing in the
the Chinese empire for some 2000 years.
Among the ancient Greeks, testing was an
established adjunct to the educational
process. Test were used to assess the
mastery of physical as well as intellectual
skills.
From their beginnings in the Middle Ages,
European universities relied on formal
examination in awarding degrees and honors
(Anastasi and Urbina, 2009).

Francis Galton
Modern psychometrics dates to Sir Francis
Galton (1822-1911), Charles Darwins
cousin Interested in (in fact, obsessed with)
individual differences and their
distribution
1884-1890: Tested 17,000 individuals
on height, weight, sizes of accessible
body parts, + behavior: hand strength,
visual acuity, etc
Demonstrated that objective tests
could provide meaningful scores

James Cattell
James Cattell (studied with Wundt & Galton)
first used the term mental testin 1890
His tests were in the brass
instruments tradition of Galton
mostly motor and acuity tests
Founded Psychological
Review(1897)

Clark Wissler
Clark Wissler (Cattells student) did the first
basic validational research, examining the
relation between the old mental test scores
and academic achievement
His results were largely
discouraging
He had only bright college
students in his sample
Wissler became an anthropologist
with a strong environmentalist bias.

Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet (1905) introduced
the first modern intelligence test,
which directly tested higher
psychological processes (real
abilities & practical judgments)
i.e. picture naming, rhyme
production, weight ordering,
question answering, word
definition.
Also motivated IQ (Stern, 1914):
mental age divided by
chronological age

 Lewis Terman (1916) produced a

major revision of Binets scale
Robert Yerkes (1919) convinced the
US government to test 1.75 million
army recruits
Post WWI: Factor analysis emerged,
making other aptitude and personality
tests possible

The psychometrician L. L. Thurstone,

founder and first president of the
Psychometric Society in 1936,
developed and applied a theoretical
approach to measurement referred to
as the law of comparative judgment, an
approach that has close connections to
the psychophysical theory of Ernst
Heinrich Weber and Gustav Fechner.

20th century . . .
In addition, Spearman and Thurstone both
made important contributions to the theory
and application of factor analysis, a
statistical method developed and used
extensively in psychometrics.
In the late 1950s, Leopold Szondi made an
historical and epistemological assessment of
the impact of statistical thinking onto
psychology during previous few decades: "in
the last decades, the specifically
psychological thinking has been almost
completely suppressed and removed, and
replaced by a statistical thinking

Uses and Varieties of Psychological Test

(Anastasi and Urbina, 2009)
Traditionally, the function of psychological test has
been measure differences between individual or
between the reactions of the same individual
under different circumstances.
Related clinical uses of tests include the
examination of persons with severe emotional
disorders and other types of behavioral
problems. A strong impetus to the early
development of tests was likewise provided by
assessment needs arising in education. This
was the case in the famous Binet tests that
should ushered in intelligence testing.

A closely related application of

psychological testing is to be found in
the selection and classification of
military personnel. From simple
beginnings in World War I, the scope
and variety of psychological tests
employed in military situations
underwent a phenomenal increase
during World War II.

The use of tests in individual counseling has

gradually broadened from a narrowly
defined guidance regarding educational
and vocational plans to an involvement
with all aspects of the persons life.
Emotional well-being and effective
interpersonal relations have become
increasingly prominent objectives of
counseling. There is a growing emphasis,
too, on the use of tests to enhance selfunderstanding and personal development.

Principles of Psychometric Tests

Three important concepts:

reliability, validity and standardization

are essential criteria for a good
psychometric test
Test standardization ensures that the
conditions are as similar as possible for all
individuals who are given the test.
Standardization also ensures that no matter
who gives the test and scores it, the results
should be the same

Test Reliability a test must measure the

same thing in the same way every time
someone takes it.
Methods of testing reliability
Test-retest
Alternate form
Split-half
Interscorer reliability

Test-retest
Give the same test
to the same group
on two different
occasions.
This methods
examines
performance of the
test over time and
evaluates its
stability.
Susceptible to
practice effects.

Alternate Form
Two versions of the
same test with
similar content.
Order Effects-Half
get A first and B
second and vice
versa
Forms must be
equal

Split-half
Measure internal
consistency.
Correlate two halves
such as odd versus
even.

Test Validity- the degree to which a test or

measuring instrument measures what it
intends to measure (Calmorin, 2004).
Types of test validity:

Face validity: does your test appear to

measure what it purports to measure
Concurrent validity: the degree to which
the test agrees or correlates with a criterion
set up as acceptable measures (e.g. does
your test of honesty correlate with existing
standardised tests of honesty?)

 types of test validity:

Predictive validity: do the results of your

test predict future behaviour
Construct validity: is the extent to which
the test measures a theoretical trait, if all
our hypotheses about the test variable
(construct) are supported then we have a
high degree of construct validity

The main types of tests

Intelligence tests: Assess intelligence
Aptitude tests: Assess capability
Achievement tests: Assess degree of
accomplishment
Personality tests: Assess traits
Interest inventories: Assess preferences for
activities
Behavioral tests: Measure behaviors and their
antecedents/consequences
Neuropsychological tests: Measure cognitive,
sensory, perceptual, or motor functions

References:
Anastasi, Anne and Urbina, Susana (2009). Psychological Testing 5th
Edition. Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd.
Calmorin, Laurentina P. (2004). Measurement and Evaluation 3rd
Edition. National Book Store
Villar, Imelda Virginia G. (2007) Implementing Comprehensive
Guidance Counseling Program in the Philippines. Aligned
Transformatioon Publication.
NTC Syllabus 2010-2011 of GC-502 Psychometrics by Professor Aida
Monteroso
http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L3-1TestingVsAssessment.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychometrics
fpweb.fmarion.edu/wWattles/.../Psychometrics.ppt
www.mdcollege.in/.../Good-testch-31-psychometr.
web.psych.ualberta.ca/.../L5Psychometrics/L5Psyc...