Psychological Testing

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Psychological Testing
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Principle Types of Psychological Tests

• Mental ability tests
• Intelligence general
• Aptitude specific
• Personality scales
• Measure motives, interests, values, and attitudes

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Key Concepts in Psychological Testing

• Standardization
• Test norms
• Standardization group
• Reliability
• Correlation coefficient
• Validity
• Content validity
• Criterion-related validity
• Construct validity

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Classical Test Theory

• Goal of testing is to identify subjects true
  score on a given attribute.

Classical Test Theory says
Test Score

True Score

Error of Measurement
Goal of test developers is to minimize this!
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Sources of Measurement Error

• Where do these measurement errors come from?
• Item sampling error
• Internal consistency error
• Time sampling error
• Random error

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? Testing

• How do psychologists know how well their test is
  measuring a persons true score?
• By assessing test reliability

Assesses Time sampling error
Test-Retest reliability
Alternate or Parallel Form reliability
Internal Consistency reliability
Assesses Item sampling error
Assesses Internal consistency error
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Test-Retest Reliability
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Judging Internal Consistency
Anxiety Scale Items 9. I am carefree 10. I am
rarely overcome with worries 17. I am not a
worrier 18. I rarely feel fearful or anxious
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? Testing

• How do psychologists know their test is measuring
  what they think it is measuring?
• By assessing test validity
• Content validity
• Criterion-related validity
• Construct validity

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Fig. 9-4, p. 339
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Fig. 9-5, p. 340
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Assessing Construct Validity
Convergent Construct Validity
Divergent Construct Validity
Our measure of extraversion should be correlated
with things related to extraversion
Our measure of extraversion should not be
correlated with things unrelated to extraversion
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Assessing Construct Validity
Convergent Construct Validity
Divergent Construct Validity
Our measure of impatience should not be
correlated with things unrelated to impatience.
Our measure of impatience should be correlated
with things related to impatience.
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? Testing

• Utility of Psychological Tests
• Reliability
• Alternate or Parallel Form
• Internal Consistency
• Test-Retest
• Validity
• Content
• Criterion-Related
• Construct