Psychological Testing and Measurements

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015 Last Modified: 12 Apr 2017

Psychological testing can be viewed as the process of administering various forms of tests; visual, written, verbal or computerized to an individual in order to assess his or her personality strength and weaknesses. These tests are designed to give different outcomes and are administered to different audiences depending on the predetermined result. For example, a child may take an intelligence test to determine his or her learning ability, giftedness in a given area, assess intellectual development or in career counseling. On the other hand, adults may take personality tests during a job interview to assess their prowess in a specified profession line, to evaluate their personality, capacity and aptitude to determine their performance level.

This paper will define the term 'test', the major categories of tests, their major uses and users of these tests. It will further review as well as discuss the major assumptions and the fundamental questions associated with psychological testing. Finally, it will compare and contrast the notion of validity and reliability in psychological testing.

Tests and its major categories

In Psychological testing, a test can be defined as a measuring device or procedure, used to evaluate expertise, understanding, acumen, competence or propensity in order to predict performance of an individual in a given area. These tests are developed in various ways and formats and are mostly characterized by objectivity and irrefutability. Various tools are used in administering psychological tests and each is designed to give a different outcome, upon which a verdict is made. It is, however, noteworthy that, while a well-developed psychological test tool can be an efficient tool in assessing the individual's performance and personality, the results are subject to interpretation of the examiner.

To enhance accuracy, reliability and accuracy of the results, the tests should be administered by a qualified psychological professional.

Types of psychological tests

Most psychological test involves a sequence of tasks or problems, in which the respondent is supposed to come up with solutions. They fall under different categories depending on the purpose of the test, and can be broadly divided into the following categories:

Intelligence Quotient Tests.

According to Alfred (2005), intelligence tests attempt to assess the individual's intelligence in terms of understanding the world around him, how it functions and how its functioning can improve the quality of one's life. The ideology of IQ test can be traced back to 1916, when Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University developed Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. His scale compares the mental age to chronological age ratio to assess the mental development of an individual, and is best applied in children. In the contemporary psychology, intelligence is measured in accordance to how an individual deviates from standardized norms.

IQ tests have a wide range of uses. An individual can sit for the test to identify his or her academic or cognitive strength. This can serve as his or her motivation and inspiration in working harder to gather more knowledge in his weak areas. Psychologists have identified this test to be important to individuals who need to gather knowledge on a given area. School administration may also subject students to IQ tests when conducting academic placement. This assists students in choosing the areas they have an interest in and consequently enhances better performance.

Achievement and aptitude tests.

These tests are common in employment and education settings and they assess on the individual's knowledge on a given topic or profession. They are used for various reasons; which psychologists have categorized as instructional, administrative and for guidance purposes (Alfred, 2005). Instructionally, aptitude tests can be used by trainers to design curricula and assignments to students. The results of these tests can be used in improving curriculum objectives, teaching methods and the learning mode of students. Administratively, these tests are applied in order to get the general trend of a given cluster. For example, it can be administered to a police force to assess its performance and preparedness, in order to evaluate training and other needs of that unit. Psychologists can conduct the aptitude test in guiding and counseling an individual, like a student in order to assess his academic weakness or in marriage to reconcile the husband and wife.

Neuropsychological tests

Neuropsychological tests are administered in an effort to evaluate discrepancies in cognitive performance. It aims at assessing the individual's ability to think, speak, reason and present his argument, especially after an incident like brain injury or stroke. The tests involve administration of a series of definite procedures in a reticent milieu. These tests are applicable to an individual undergoing traumatic brain injury.

Occupational tests

Occupation tests are conducted in a working environment during recruitment of new employees, filter out candidates during an interview, promotions and staff training. The tests are also suitable in career guidance and team building. The results of the test are based on the performance of individuals, and normally, the best candidates are selected for a given job.

Personality tests

Personality tests are conducted to evaluate the personality, principles, interests and dexterity. These tests have diverse applications in academics, profession and health disciplines. They are administered to various individuals for self assessment and to determine one's qualification for a given position or mental state. Specific clinical test

These tests are usually conducted to assess the healthy status of an individual. They are administered by qualified health personnel (nurses and doctors) to evaluate the levels of depression, anxiety, blood pressure and other complications.

Assumptions and fundamental questions in psychology testing

Hoagan (2003) elucidates the main assumptions that individuals make in conducting psychological testing's. He summarized them as follows: People have different traits, hence different attitude and behaviors; these traits are quantifiable and we can derive different categories and clusters of people with relatively stable behaviours and that these traits relate to actual behavior.

He further outlined the twelve fundamental questions which should be answered in psychology testing: What assessment tests are designed to meet the pre-determined objective; if the one conducting the test is professionally qualified and registered with a psychological body; whether the test provider has technical reports on validity assessment and if he is able to generate a validity outcome before conducting the test; if he has a standardized validation procedure and a cut-off point before conducting the test; if he has designed monitoring and evaluation measures and kept a record to support his assessment test; and if the assessor can legally support his tests.

Validity and reliability in psychological testing

The essence of conducting a psychological test is to derive a verdict on a given individual. It is, therefore, crucial that the test conducted provides accurate, valid and reliable results. Validity in psychological testing refers to accuracy and usefulness of the results of a given test. It varies with the test and predetermined objectives of that test. It can be categorized into three: Content validity, which is the ability of a test to sample comprehensively elements and contents of a given area of study, and to derive acceptable results on the same; Criterion- based validity, which refers to the ability of a given test to forecast someone's performance in a given area; based on the current performance and conduct of an individual, and hence one can predict how that individual will perform in a different position in the future, and Construct validity which means the ability of the test to measure what it was predetermined to measure.

In a nutshell, reliability refers to consistency in results after conducting a given test. It can be classified into two: Internal consistency reliability which is the measure of how well different items being tested are interrelating, and Test-retest reliability which describes how well results of test conducted in a given test administration unit relate to result of the same test conducted in a different unit at a later date.

It is noteworthy that validity and reliability goes hand in hand in psychological testing.

Conclusion

Psychological testing is an important discipline in assessing and evaluating the individual's behaviors, personality and performance. Various tests are conducted to yield these results and psychologists use the results in assisting individuals with various psychological, physical or emotional needs. The tests should be reliable and valid in order to meet their predetermined goal.