In this presentation You could know that what

a psychological test is.

Its characteristics.

Advantages and limitations.

Why psychological tests were

developed.

How they can be used to assist

individuals in our societies to promote

better understanding of human behavior and to make decisions.

Why do we need psychological testing?

The need to make decisions about people is not a new challenge

for the human race. Every day people in our societies are faced

with the task of making decisions that are important and have

long-term implications for individuals.

Which university

course should I

pursue?

Who should I appoint for this important position

in my company?

Does my client have a mental disorder?

Similarly, human beings have always been

fascinated by their own and others’ behaviors

Why is this seemingly bright student

underperforming in class?

Why do I lack confidence in public speaking?

Traditionally, we have

relied on a number of

methods (e.g. tradition

supernatural forces,

laws or logic) to assist

us in these processes.

For example, in ancient

China, astrology and

numerology were

used to evaluate

the compatibility

between brides and

grooms.

For the profession of psychology, personal judgment and clinical

intuition have been used for a long time to assist psychologists

to arrive at a decision or to understand behavior.

For example, psychologists who work in business

organizations have made decisions about hiring

individuals based on interviewing them.

Similarly, clinicians have used interviews to decide if someone

is suffering from mental illness or brain injury.

It has been shown

repeatedly, however, that

human judgment is

subjective and fallible.

Some of the factors that

can influence the outcomes

of human judgment include,

stereotyping, personal

bias, positive and negative

halo effect, and errors of

central tendency

Given that most decisions relating to professional psychology

have significant implication for the person involved or the

person who made decision, an error in making the decision can

costly and devastating, and may not be reversible.

For example, an erroneous judgment about the mental competency of a

person can lead to the rights of the person being wrongfully removed

As another example, a lot of time and money could be wasted

if the wrong person was hired for a job

Psychologists consider psychological tests better than personal

judgment in informing decision making in many situations

because of the nature and defining characteristics of these tests

What is a psychological test?

This seems to be a difficult question to answer when one

examines the plethora of published tests in the market and finds

that they can differ in so many respects.

While some psychological tests take only a few minutes to

complete, others can take hours to administer.

For some psychological tests, a respondent is required to provide only a

simple yes/no answer, other tests are designed in such a way that a person

has to navigate and respond in a virtual reality environment.

Some psychological tests can be administered to hundreds of people at

one time and scored and interpreted by a computer, but other tests require

face-to-face administration and individual scoring and interpretation that

require years of training and experience.

Despite the above wide-ranging differences, all

psychological tests are considered to have one thing

common, that is, they are the tools that psychologists

use to collect data about people

More specifically, a psychological test is an objective procedure

for sampling and quantifying human behaviour to make an

inference about a particular psychological construct using

standardize stimuli, and methods of administration and scoring.

In addition, to demonstrate its usefulness, a psychological test

requires appropriate norms and evidence

A psychological test is a sample of behavior that is used to

make inferences about the individual in a significant social

context. The behavior sample may be considered complete in

itself or, as is more often the case, as a sign of an underlying

disposition that mediates behaviour.

Take, for example, a psychological test that is used to decide whether an

individual will be able to understand instructional material to be used in

job training. The test for this purpose may consist of sample passage from

the daily newspaper. The test taker’s task is to read each of the passages

and report their meanings. If comprehension of most of the passages is

accurate, the test taker can be judged to read well enough for the purposes

of the job. As long as the difficulty level of the passages approximates

that of the instructional material, the test provides a basis for inferring

adequate performance in training.

In a clinical setting, a test may provide a sample of the behavior that the client finds

disturbing. For example, a client may suffer an irrational fear of an object that is not

actually dangerous, such as harmless spiders. As a result of the fear, the client cannot

enter a darkened room or clean out cupboards because of the likelihood of confronting

a spider. To assess the magnitude of the irrational fear, the tester may ask the client to

approach a harmless spider being held in a glass case. The distance from the spider

that induces a report of anxiety is taken as an indication of the severity of the client’s

avoidance behaviour. This can be used to judge the effectiveness of any subsequent

planned intervention to reduce the problem. After the treatment the client should be able

to approach the spider more closely that before.

In both of these cases, the sample of behavior is complete in itself, in that

it assesses directly what the tester wants to know; namely, comprehending

common passages of English text or avoiding an object of a phobia.

The samples could be used, however, as

the basis for indirect inferences, by

arguing that each in its own way reflects

an underlying disposition that is

responsible for the individual’s behavior.

Thus, the comprehension test might be

used to infer the individual’s level of

general mental ability or intelligence

and the avoidance test may be used to

infer the individual’s level of neuroticism

that is, the likelihood that they will suffer

an anxiety disorder. In these cases, the

content of the particular sample is

incidental and can be replaced by a

different sample that is also thought

for the test of verbal comprehension as

a sign of general mental ability, or a set

of questions about episodes of anxiety

and depression may be substituted for

the avoidance test as a sign of the

individual’s level of neuroticism. Such

substitution would make no sense if the

tests were being used as a sample

rather than a sigh.

The distinction between tests as samples of behavior or as signs of an

underlying disposition rests on theoretical differences about the

causes of human behavior. We draw attention to the distinction here

for two reasons. First, it is important for the tester to be aware

whether any particular test is being used principally as a sample of

behavior or as a sign of an underlying disposition we say ‘principally

’ because the distinction when probed is not hard and fast

The other reason for making

the distinction is that tests

used in these two ways are

interpreted differently.

Where the test is a

sample, interpretation

of test performance is

usually in terms of what

has been called

‘criterion referencing’;

where the test is used as

a sign, what is termed a

‘norm referencing’

strategy is usually

adopted.

In the case of former, what is effective behavior in the situation in question

can be specified reasonably objectively and the individual’s performance

is judged against this standard or criterion.

Thus, a person might be expected to understand most, if not all, of what they

read in a newspaper if they are to deal with instructional manuals on the job. A

person free of a spider phobia can be expected to come close to a harmless

spider, but perhaps not touch it. In the case of norm referencing, on the other

hand, the performance of the individual is related to the performance of a group

of individuals similar to the test taker in important respects (e.g. 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. Many psychological tests are thought of as signs of underlying

dispositions and as such are norm referenced.

The second characteristics of a psychological

test, similar to other scientific measurement

instruments, is that it is an objective

procedure. It uses the same standardized

material administration instructions, time limits

and scoring procedures for all test takers.

This ensures that there is no bias, unintended

or otherwise, in collecting the information

and that meaningful comparisons can be

made between individuals who are

administered the same psychological test.

Unless two people are treated in the same

way (e.g. same instruction, same order of

questions and same time limits), it is not

possible to attribute any differences in their

performance to differences between them.

The difference in performance could just as

well be due to the difference in the ways

they were tested. To ensure uniformity of

test stimuli and procedures, the manual that

accompanies a psychological test usually

includes detailed and clear instructions

The objective nature of psychological tests is one the main advantages

they have over other methods for assisting us to understand human

behavior and make decisions about it, not the least because it minimizes

errors of judgment relating to personal bias or subjectivity.

Third, unlike subjective human judgment, the result of a psychological test

is summarized quantitatively in terms of a score or scores. Again, this

characteristic is similar to that of other scientific measurement instruments

that use numbers to represent the extent of variables such as weight, temperature and velocity.

The quantification of psychological test results allows

human behavior to be described more precisely and to

be communicated more clearly. For example, the use of

an IQ score allows psychologists to provide a more

fine-grained description of a person’s intellectual ability.

Fourth, a psychological test provides an objective reference point for evaluating the behavior it measures.

Criterion-Referenced Test

In the case of a criterion-referenced test, 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. It may be, for example , the judgment of experts that determines

the standard, but it is open to all to see what the standard is that is beingset. It is not the personal viewpoint of the person collecting the information.

Norm-Referenced Test

In the same way, in a norm-referenced test the performance of a

representative group of people on the test is used in preparing the test

norms and these are used in scoring the test. The individual’s performance

is thus referred to that of the norming group, a reference point that is notan individual’s judgment.

In both cases, the psychological test

allows the comparison between the

individual in question and some sortof standard performance.

Fifth, possible the most important defining characteristics of a

psychological test is that it must meet a number of criteria to be a useful

information-gathering device. The criteria relate to its quality as measuring

device; for example, how accurate and reproducible are the scoresobtained with it how well does it measure what it intends to measure.

Psychometric Properties These criteria are referred to as psychometric properties. They are

evaluated in the course of test construction and again subsequently, and

are reported or made available to test users. This is in fact a process of

quality control to ensure that the test is operating in the way the authors

claim it does. By showing that the psychometric properties of a

psychological test have reached a required standard, we can haveconfidence in using the results obtained from the test.

Although it is important to know that psychological tests have a number of

advantages, it is also necessary to be aware of the limitations of tests. Not

knowing limitations can lead to an over-reliance on, or misunderstanding ofthe psychological test results obtained.

The first of these limitations, as mentioned earlier, is that psychological tests are only tools.

As such, they do not and cannot take decisions for test users. Decision making is the

responsibility of the person who commissioned the use of the test and to who the test

results are made available. the person may be the psychologist who administered the test,

but the two roles should not be confused. The test provides a way of gathering information

and , if well chosen, will provide accurate and pertinent information, but the use of the

information, including a bad decision, is in the hands of the decision maker. Not being

aware of this limitation can lead the test user and the person involved to be dependent on

the test results and accept them passively. Instead, psychological test results should be

used as a source of data, along with other sources of data such as personal history and

current circumstances, to assist the test user or the individual to arrive at or make an informed decision.

Second, psychological tests are often used in an attempt to capture the

effects of hypothetical constructs. As in other scientific disciplines,

psychology employs constructs that are not directly observable, rather

their effects can only be inferred. As such, we need to be aware that

sometimes a gap exists between what the psychologist intends to measure

using a psychological test and what a test actually measures

For example, although IQ tests were developed to measure intelligence,

we need to be aware that the value of these tests in telling us about a

person’s intelligence depends very much on our understanding of the

construct of intelligence and the type(s) of behaviors included in any

particular test. Not being aware of this issue can lead to the development

of unwarranted faith in psychological tests and total acceptance of the test results without being aware of their limitations.

Third, because of continual development or refinement of psychological theories,

development of technology and passage of time, psychological tests can become

obsolete. They may no longer be suitable for use because the theory that their construction

was based on has been shown to be wrong or because the content of the items is no longer

appropriate because of social or cultural change. In the early part of the twentieth

century, for example, church attendance in Western countries was very much higher than it

is now and a reasonable level of Bible knowledge could be assumed. A test item might

draw on this fact. Although useful then it is might now be far too esoteric to be of many

use today. According to the Australian Psychological Society and the American

Psychological Association, tests should be revised or updated regularly and normative samples should be kept current.

Finally, although it may not be the intention of a test developer, sometimes

a psychological test can disadvantage a subgroup of test takers because

of their cultural experience or language background. A vocabulary test

that usefully discriminates levels of verbal ability among children from

white, English-speaking, middle class homes may be of no use for this

purpose with children with a different sub-cultural experience or those who

do not have English as their first language. Test are not universally applicable and to treat them as such may do an injustice to some.

For better understanding you can produce your answers.

Q: What are some of the ways that psychological tests

have been used to assist individuals in promoting

understanding and making decisions?

Q: What are the five defining characteristics of

psychological test?

Q: The advantages of a psychological test outweigh its

limitations. Discuss.

Q: Some questionnaires (e.g. Am I moody individual? How is

your marital relationship?) in popular magazines look likebut are not psychological tests, Why are they not.