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Nature and Uses of a Psychological Test

by Pete Aton

Psychological Testing vs. Psychological Assessment

Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess
psychological construct(s), such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given
individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics. By
samples of behavior, one means observations over time of an individual performing tasks that
have usually been prescribed beforehand, which often means scores on a test. These responses
are often compiled into statistical tables that allow the evaluator to compare the behavior of the
individual being tested to the responses of a norm group .

Psychological assessment is similar to psychological testing but usually involves a more

comprehensive assessment of the individual. Psychological assessment is a process that involves
the integration of information from multiple sources, such as tests of normal and abnormal
personality, tests of ability or intelligence, tests of interests or attitudes, as well as information
from personal interviews. Collateral information is also collected about personal, occupational,
or medical history, such as from records or from interviews with parents, spouses, teachers, or
previous therapists or physicians.

A psychological test is one of the sources of data used within the process of assessment; usually
more than one test is used. Many psychologists do some level of assessment when providing
services to clients or patients, and may use for example, simple checklists to assess some traits or
symptoms, but psychological assessment is a more complex, detailed, in-depth process. Typical
types of focus for psychological assessment are to provide a diagnosis for treatment settings; to
assess a particular area of functioning or disability often for school settings; to help select type of
treatment or to assess treatment outcomes; to help courts decide issues such as child custody or
competency to stand trial; or to help assess job applicants or employees and provide career
development counseling or training.

Psychological Tests are tools. Any tool can be an instrument of good and harm, depending on
how it is used.

Uses of tests
Traditional

 Measures differences between individuals or between the reactions of the same

individual under different circumstances.
 Identification of mentally retarded persons.
 Examinations of persons with severe emotional disorders and other types of
behavioral problems.
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Education
 Classification of children with reference to their ability to profit from different types
of school instruction (slow & fast learners).
 Educational and occupational counseling for high school & college students.
 Selection of applicants for professional schools.
Industrial
 Selection and classification of personnel
o Hiring
o Job assignment
o Transfer
o Promotion
o Termination
Military
 Selection of military personnel (WW1 & WWll)
Individual Counseling
 Educational and vocational plans
 Emotional well being
 Effective interpersonal well being
 Enhance self-understanding and personal development
Tool in research
 Standardized tool in research

In the Clinical Setting

Psychologists primarily use tests to supplement or assist in various phases of treatment. Test
results are used along with clinical discussions to help you move from one phase of treatment to
the next. Tests that measure symptoms provide a picture of what needs to change, and tests that
reveal unique traits give the psychologist an idea of how to assist you. From the initial
assessment to the closing of treatment, tests results provide vital information that keeps the
therapeutic experience relevant for you.

1) Assessment

Psychologists use tests during one of your fist few sessions to assess your problem. A
psychologist tests at this point to supplement his clinical interview and to determine the severity,
duration and extent of your problems. A test such as the Beck Depression Inventory, for
example, aids in making these measurements.

2) Setting Goals

Psychologists use test results to help you set goals for improvement. Psychologists use unusual
results, such as a high occurrence of depression, to develop specific and measurable goals. Goals
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such as "reduce the frequently of depression to half of that initially discovered" are clear and can
be measured to show improvement.

3) Determining Interventions

Psychologists also use tests to identify the most effective interventions for you. Personality tests,
such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, can reveal much about how you think and the way you
relate to other people. These tests reveal your strengths as well as your weaknesses. For example,
if your test results reveal that you are a highly analytical person, interventions such as reading
and rational analysis of problems may be effective in helping you make desired changes.

4) Reviewing Progress

Most psychologists use tests as a way of reviewing what you have accomplished in treatment. If
you scored high on the Beck Anxiety Inventory in your initial assessment, re-taking the test three
months later may reveal lower anxiety and provide you with momentum to keep up the work.

5) Closure

A psychologist does not want to keep you dependent on her. Her goal is to build your
competence and confidence so you can manage your problems on your own. Psychologists often
use tests as a way of ending treatment. Tests results are used as evidence in closing discussions
about the progress you have achieved.

Timeline of Early Milestones in the History of Testing

 2200 B.C.: Chinese emperor examined his officials every third year to determine their fitness for
office.
 1862 A.D.: Wilhelm Wundt uses a calibrated pendulum to measure the “speed of thought”.
 1869: Scientific study of individual differences begins with the publication of Francis Galton’s
Classification of Men According to Their Natural Gifts.
 1879: Wundt establishes the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.
 1884: Galton administers the first test battery to thousands of citizens at the International
Health Exhibit.
 1888: J.M. Cattell opens a testing laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania.
 1890: Cattell uses the term "mental test" in announcing the agenda for his Galtonian test
battery.
 1901: Clark Wissler discovers that Cattellian “brass instruments” tests have no correlation with
college grades.
 1904: Charles Spearman describes his two-factor theory of mental abilities. First major textbook
on education measurement, E. L. Thorndike’s Introduction to the Theory of Mental and Social
Measurement, is published.
 1905: Binet and Simon invented the first modern intelligence scale. Carl Jung uses word-
association test for analysis of mental complexes.
 1914: Stern introduces the intelligence quotient (IQ): the mental age divided by chronological
age.
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 1916: Lewis Terman revises the Binet-Simon scales, publishes the Standford-Binet. Revisions
appear in 1937, 1960, and 1986.
 1917: Army Alpha and Army Beta, the first group intelligence tests, are constructed and
administered to U.S. Army recruits. Robert Woodworth develops the Personal Data Sheet, the
first personality test.
 1920: Rorschach Inkblot test is published.
 1921: Psychological Corporation – the first major test publisher – is founded by Cattell,
Thorndike, and Woodworth.
 1927: First edition of Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Men is published.
 1938: First Mental Measurements Yearbook is published.
 1939: Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale is published. Revisions are published in 1955, 1981,
and 1997
 1942: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is published.
 1949: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children is published. Revisions are published in 1974 and
1991.

A Brief History of Psychological Testing

Although the widespread use of psychological testing is largely a phenomenon of the 20th century, it has
been noted that rudimentary forms of testing date back to at least 2200 B.C., when the Chinese emperor
had his officials examined every third year to determine their fitness for office (Gregory, 1992). Such
testing was modified and refined over the centuries until written exams were introduced in the Han
dynasty. The Chinese examination system took its final form about 1370 when proficiency in the
Confusian Classics was emphasized. The examinations were grueling and rigorous (e.g., spend a day and
a night in a small isolated booth composing essays on assigned topics and writing a poem). Those who
passed the hierarchical examinations became mandarins or eligible for public office (Gregory, 1992).
However, the similarities between the ancient Chinese traditions and current testing practices are
superficial.

Psychological testing also owes as much to early psychiatry as it does to the laboratories of experimental
psychology. The examination of the mentally ill around the middle of the last century resulted in the
development of numerous early tests. For instance, in 1885, German physician Hubert von Grashey
developed the antecedent of the memory drum as a means of testing brain-injured patients. In 1889,
German psychiatrist Conrad Rieger developed a battery to assess defects resulting from brain injury,
which included assessment of long- term memory, visual recognition, and short-term memory (Gregory,
1992). These early tests lacked standardization and were relegated to oblivion (Gregory, 1992).
Nonetheless, they were influential in determining the course of psychological testing.

Most historians trace the beginnings of psychological testing to the experimental investigation of
individual differences that flourished in Germany and Great Britain in the late 1800s. Early
experimentalists like Wilhelm Wundt, Francis Galton, and James Cattell laid the foundation for testing in
the twentieth century (Gregory, 1992). They departed from the wholly subjective and introspective
methods and began to test human abilities in laboratories. For instance, Galton used several of the
psychophysical procedures practiced by Wundt and others in Europe and adapted them to a series of
simple and quick sensorimotor measures. To further study individual differences, Galton set up a
laboratory in London at the International Health Exhibition in 1884, which was later transferred to a
London Museum (Gregory, 1992). The tests and measures used involved both the physical and behavioral
domains. Galton has often been regarded as the father of mental testing by historians (Gregory, 1992).
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Even though his simplistic attempts to gauge intellect with measures of reaction time and sensory
discrimination proved fruitless, he provided a tremendous impetus to the testing movement by
demonstrating that objective tests could be devised and that meaningful scores could be obtained through
standardized procedures (Gregory, 1992).

James McKeen Cattell studied the new experimental psychology with both Wundt and Galton before
settling in Columbia University. Cattell continued studying reaction times to measure individual
differences (Gregory, 1992). Cattell also introduced the term ―mental test‖ in his famous paper entitled
―Mental Tests and Measurements‖. This paper described ten mental tests, which were physiological and
sensory measures, reflecting his Galtonian heritage (Gregory, 1992). Clark Wissler, one of Cattell’s
doctoral graduates, conducted a study to test whether results could predict academic performance. His
results showed virtually no tendency for the mental test scores to correlate with academic achievement.

With the publication of Wissler’s results, experimental psychologists largely abandoned the use of
reaction time and sensory discrimination as measures of intelligence. However, the void created by the
abandonment of the Galtonian tradition did not last long. In Europe, Alfred Binet (see below for
biographical information) introduced his scale of intelligence in 1905 and shortly thereafter H.H. Goddard
imported it to the United States. Binet developed his tests in early 1900s to help identify children in the
Paris school system who were unlikely to profit from ordinary instruction. Binet’s measures of
intelligence focused on higher psychological processes rather than the elementary sensory processes such
as reaction time. Binet developed his 1905 scales in collaboration with Theodore Simon. The character of
the 1905 scales owed much to a prior test developed by Dr. Blin (1902) and his pupil M. Damaye, who
attempted to improve the diagnosis of mental retardation by using a battery of assessments (Gregory,
1992). Binet criticized the scales for being too subjective and for having items reflecting formal
education; however, he was much impressed with the idea of using a battery of tests, a feature which he
adopted in his 1905 scales (Gregory, 1992).

Types of Psychological test:

 According to administration – Individual ; group
 Based on aspects of Behavior measured
o cognitive or abilities – intelligence test ; aptitude test
o affective (personality) – emotional or motivational traits ; interpersonal;
interest; attitude; values

Psychological tests fall into several categories

Achievement and aptitude tests are usually seen in educational or employment settings, and they
attempt to measure either how much you know about a certain topic (i.e., your achieved knowledge), such
as mathematics or spelling, or how much of a capacity you have (i.e., your aptitude) to master material in
a particular area, such as mechanical relationships

Intelligence tests attempt to measure your intelligence—that is, your basic ability to understand the world
around you, assimilate its functioning, and apply this knowledge to enhance the quality of your life. Or, as
Alfred Whitehead said about intelligence, ―it enables the individual to profit by error without being
slaughtered by it.‖ Intelligence, therefore, is a measure of a potential, not a measure of what you’ve
learned (as in an achievement test), and so it is supposed to be independent of culture. The challenge is to
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design a test that can actually be culture-free; most intelligence tests fail in this area to some extent for
one reason or another.

Neuropsychological tests attempt to measure deficits in cognitive functioning (i.e., your ability to think,
speak, reason, etc.) that may result from some sort of brain damage, such as a stroke or a brain injury.

Occupational tests attempt to match your interests with the interests of persons in known careers. The
logic here is that if the things that interest you in life match up with, say, the things that interest most
school teachers, then you might make a good school teacher yourself.

Personality tests attempt to measure your basic personality style and are most used in research or
forensic settings to help with clinical diagnoses. Two of the most well-known personality tests are

 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), or the revised MMPI-2, composed of

several hundred ―yes or no‖ questions, and

What is a psychological test?

A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior

(Anastassi, 1997).

The diagnostic and predictive validity of a psychological test depends on the degree to which it
serves as an indicator of a relatively broad and significant area of behavior.

Important characteristics of a psychological test:

 Standard
 Objective
 Reliable
 Valid
Standardization implies uniformity of procedure in administering and scoring the test. This
further implies uniformity of the testing conditions, test directions, exact materials employed,
time limits, oral instructions, preliminary demonstrations, ways of handling queries from test
takers, and every other details of the testing situation. Another step in standardization of a test is
the establishment of norms – the normal average performance.

Objectivity of the psychological test would mean that its administration, scoring and
interpretation are independent from the subjective judgment of the particular examiner. The
difficulty level of its item is determined through objective empirical procedures, and s arranged
in increasing difficulty in its final form.

Test reliability is the consistency of scores obtained by the same person when retested with the
identical test or with an equivalent form of the test.

Validity is the degree to which the test actually measures what it purports to measure. It provides
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a check on how well the test fulfils its function. The determination of validity requires
independent, external criteria of whatever the test is designed to measure.

Why control the use of Psychological test?

1) To ensure that the test is given by a qualified examiner and that the scores are properly used.

2) To prevent general familiarity with the test content, which would invalidate the test.

Qualified Examiner: A trained examiner by experience and educational background. One who
knows to evaluate test (purpose and appropriateness, its requirements in administrations, scoring
and interpretations and integrate his/her knowledge in a testing program.

Role of the Test User

Test user is anyone who uses test scores as one source of information in reaching a practical
decisions (teachers, counselors, school administrators, HR practitioners in industry or
government).

The most frequent misused of test scores is insufficient or faulty knowledge about testing
(Anastasi, 1997).

Security of the Test Content and Communication of Test Information

Tests content clearly has to be restricted in order to forestall deliberate efforts to fake scores. If
one were to memorize the correct response to a test, such test would no longer be a valid
measure of that particular behavior to that person.

What can be communicated?

1) Test information such as nature and purpose of the test. This dispels the mystery that may be
associated with testing, and thereby helps to correct prevalent misconceptions about what the test
was designed for and what the scores mean.

2) Technical procedures whereby particular tests were constructed and evaluated (reliability,
validity, and other psychometric properties)

3) To familiarize test takers with testing procedures, dispel anxiety, and ensure that each will
perform to the best of their ability.
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Test Administration : Requirements for good testing procedure

1) Advance Preparation of Examiners

 >Memorizing the exact verbal instructions
 >Preparation of the test materials (test booklets, answer sheets, pencils, scratch, stop
watch, etc.)
 Thorough familiarity with testing procedures (Individual and group testing)

2) Testing Conditions
 Testing room (noise free, appropriate lighting, ventilations, seating facilities, space)
 Posting signs to indicate testing is in progress

3) Introducing the Test: Rapport and Test-Taker Orientation

 Rapport refers to the examiner’s effort to arouse the test takers’ interest in the test,
elicit their cooperation, and encourage them to respond in a manner appropriate to the
objectives of the test.
o Testing pre-school children – friendly, cheerful, and relaxed manner
o Elementary grades (2-3) – game approach
o Older children – appeal to be competitive and desire to do well
o Emotionally disturbed – experienced examiner must be sensitive to their
difficulties
o School-age child or Adult –give reassurance, explain the purpose of the test

Examiner and Situational Variables

 Examiner’s behavior immediately preceding and during test administration influences
test results.
 Examiner’s own expectations
 Time of the day
 Activities immediately preceding the test
 Feedback regarding test scores on the individual’s performance

Test Anxiety: Findings shows a negative correlation between test scores and test anxiety

Components of test anxiety:

 Emotionality – feelings and physiological reactions such as tension and increase
heartbeat
 Worry or cognitive – negative self-oriented thoughts
There is a need for therapeutic interventions

Effects of Training on Performance:

 Coaching
 Intensive drills on similar items improves performance
 Test Sophistication
* Broad testing experience of test takers make an edge in following the
Instruction
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 Training on different techniques in problem solving would be effective if it enhances

the test takers chances of attaining the desired goals.

Sources of Information about the test

 Mental Measurement Yearbook (MMY)
 Standard for Educational and Psychological Testing
 American Educational Research Association (AERA)
 National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)