What are psychological tests

1
What are psychological tests?

• What makes a good psychological test
• How are psychological tests used/misused
• What does it mean if a test is biased
• Why did they make me take the SAT (or ACT) in
  order to get into college?

2
Testing

• Scale Quantifies someone on an empirically
  useful behavior/trait
• But depends on how reliable/valid both the scale
  and behavior/trait are
• Excholesterol level

3
Reliability and Validity

• Reliability Does test always measure same thing.
  Consistency
• Test-retest
• Coefficient Alpha internal consistency
• Validity Does it measure what its supposed to
• Predictive
• Content
• Construct
• Face A double edged sword
• Ex. Rapists/college student ATW experiment

4
History of Psychological Testing

• Begins with aptitude testing in China
• As early as circa 200 B.C., during Han dynasty,
  for civil service
• Ultimately copied by British in 1800s for same
  purpose
• Spreads throughout Western governments

5
Focus shifts to mental retardation

• Recognition that there are levels of MR
• From normalcy to low grade idiocy (19th century
  terminology)
• How best to discriminate levels of MR?
• Francis Galton
• Theories of MR
• Pioneers use of Ratings scales
• Student Karl Pearson (pioneers use of regression)

6
Feeble-Mindedness

• Development halted at early age
• 3 Levels
• Moron 7-12 y.o. equivalent at maturity
• Imbecile 2-7 y.o. at maturity
• Idiot 2 or less at maturity
• Obviously not a classification system in current
  use

7
Intelligence Testing

• French authorities want to identify children who
  fail in normal schooling
• 30 item Binet-Simon (1905) test developed
• Standardized
• Important issue!!!
• Same instructions given to every child
• Normative sample

8
Intelligence Testing Part 2

• 1916 Binet test renormed modified for US
  population
• Stanford-Binet test
• Use the term IQ
• Same time Yerkes commissioned by US Army for
  group-administered intelligence test
• Army Alpha (reading required)
• Army Beta

9
Intelligence Testing Continued

• 1939, Stanford-Binet gets competitor in the
  Wechsler Scales of Intelligence
• WAIS, WISC, WPPSI
• Most popular Intelligence test in US
• Different types of intelligence (Verbal vs.
  Performance)
• tops out at IQ 155
• bottoms out at IQ 45
• Stanford-Binet can go lower

10
Types of Cognitive tests

• Cognitive Tests
• Intelligence Tests
• What is intelligence?
• Achievement tests
• Measures prior learning in given subject
• Aptitude tests
• Measures potential for learning
• ex. ASVAB

11
Personality Tests

• In WWI, US Army wants to weed out men unfit for
  combat duty.
• Woodsworth Personal Data Sheet

12
Woodsworth Personal Data Sheet

• 
  Yes No
• I wet the bed
• I drink a quart of whiskey each day
• I am afraid of closed spaces
• I believe I am being followed
• People are out to get me
• Does the sight of blood make you sick or dizzy?
• Are you happy most of the time?
• Do you sometimes wish you had never been born?

13
Personality Assessment 2

• 2 Basic kinds
• Objective vs. Projective
• Intelligence vs. Personality testing
• Some argue intelligence is part of personality
• Gold standard
• Work best when correlated with predictive
  outcomes
• Ex. Suicidality scale

14
Objective Tests

• For Fun tests
• Tell you stuff you already know
• horoscopes
• Not linked with outcomes
• Ex. Myers-Briggs
• Clinical tests
• Nuts/not nuts
• Correlated with outcomes

15
Projective Tests

• Present neutral stimuli on which psychopathology
  can be projected
• there is no wrong answer
• Normative responses
• Originate in psychoanalytic theory
• Clinical Interpretations
• Reliability and validity issues
• Standardization issues