Psychological Test

Definition: 

A Psychological test is a standardized measure of a sample of a person’s behaviour that is used to measure the individual differences that exist among people. 

'A psychological test is an objective and standardized measure of an individual’s mental and/or behavioural characteristics. A Psychological test is a systematic procedure or observing person’s behaviour or performing, describing it with the aid of a numerical scale or category system.' 

Mostly tests are used as a way of measuring differences between people or differences in the same person over time. Psychological tests are written, visual, or verbal evaluations administered to assess the cognitive and emotional functioning of children and adults. 

Need for psychological test: - 

1. Identifies weaknesses and strength 
2. Supports individualized lesson plans 
3. Enables placement decisions 
4. Monitors progress 
5. Identifying disabilities 
6. Helping the administrative and academic works 
7. Vocational ability.

Main Characteristics of a Good Psychological Test 

Five main characteristics of a good psychological test are as follows: 

1. Objectivity 
2. Reliability 
3. Validity 
4. Norms 
5. Practicability! 

1. Objectivity: The test should be free from subjective—judgement regarding the ability, skill, knowledge, trait or potentiality to be measured and evaluated. 

2. Reliability: This refers to the extent to which they obtained results are consistent or reliable. When the test is administered on the same sample for more than once with a reasonable gap of time, a reliable test will yield same scores. It means the test is trustworthy. There are many methods of testing reliability of a test. 

3. Validity: It refers to extent to which the test measures what it intends to measure. For example, when an intelligent test is developed to assess the level of intelligence, it should assess the intelligence of the person, not other factors. Validity explains us whether the test fulfils the objective of its development. There are many methods to assess validity of a test. 

4. Norms: Norms refer to the average performance of a representative sample on a given test. It gives a picture of average standard of a particular sample in a particular aspect. Norms are the standard scores, developed by the person who develops test. The future users of the test can compare their scores with norms to know the level of their sample. 

5. Practicability: The test must be practicable in- time required for completion, the length, number of items or questions, scoring, etc. The test should not be too lengthy and difficult to answer as well as scoring.

Major Uses of Tests: -

 The basic use of tests is to provide information for decision makers. 

 • Selection or placement 
 • Diagnosis 
 • Accountability evaluations 
 • Judging progress and following trends 
 • Self‐ discovery

Psychological testing is utilized in various fields and for a multitude of purposes. Some common uses include:

1. Clinical Assessment: Psychological tests are used to diagnose mental health disorders, assess symptoms, and determine appropriate treatment plans for individuals seeking therapy.

2. Educational Assessment: Schools use psychological testing to evaluate students' learning abilities, identify learning disabilities, and determine appropriate educational interventions.

3. Personnel Selection: Employers use psychological testing as part of the hiring process to assess candidates' skills, personality traits, and suitability for specific job roles.

4. Career Counseling: Psychometric assessments help individuals explore their interests, strengths, and values to make informed decisions about their career paths.

5. Forensic Evaluation: Psychological testing is used in legal settings to assess individuals' competency to stand trial, evaluate their mental state at the time of an offense, or determine their risk for reoffending.

6. Research Purposes: Psychologists and researchers use psychological tests to study human behavior, cognition, personality traits, and mental processes in both experimental and observational studies.

7. Neuropsychological Assessment: These tests are used to assess cognitive functioning, memory, attention, and executive functions in individuals with neurological conditions or brain injuries.

8. Counseling and Therapy: Psychologists use psychological tests as part of the therapeutic process to gain insight into clients' personalities, motivations, and underlying issues.

9. Self-Exploration and Personal Development: Individuals may use psychological testing tools for self-reflection, gaining insights into their own personality traits, strengths, and areas for growth.

10. Performance Evaluation: Psychological tests are used in sports psychology and organizational settings to assess athletes' performance, team dynamics, leadership styles, and organizational effectiveness.

These are just a few examples of the diverse applications of psychological testing across different domains.

Ethics of assessments and test:

Psychological tests serve many useful purposes such as selection, counselling, guidance, self-analysis, and diagnosis. Unless used by a trained practitioner, they may be misused either intentionally or unintentionally. A practitioner is expected to follow certain ethics (or moral principles) while conducting the tests.

• The practitioner must be trained and competent to conduct assessments. They must be mindful of the potential negative impact of the measures.
• The practitioner must possess the knowledge of the particular psychometric assessments and give due consideration to the sources of variability such as context, setting, purpose and population.
• The practitioner must use standardised assessments and triage conclusions from multiple sources of assessment. They must be mindful of the appropriateness of the norms for the particular individual and ensure fairness.
• The practitioner must practice with cultural competence w.r.t. diverse, underrepresented and vulnerable populations. They must be sensitive to individual differences, various forms of biases or potential biases, cultural attitudes, population appropriate norms, and potential misuse of data.
• The practitioner must strive to share the results of assessment and psycho-educate their clients with regards to the constructs being assessed.
• Practitioners who educate and train others in testing, assessment, and evaluation; must maintain their own competency in training, supervision and assessment practice. 
• Practitioners who use technology when testing, assessing, or evaluating psychological status must strive to remain aware of technological advances and limitations of the same. Additionally, they must ensure privacy and data security.                                                                                                                                                                              History of Psychological Testing

  Psychological testing:

 The word “test” refers to any means used to draw responses to which human behavior in other contexts can be related.

         “Psychological testing, also called psychometrics, the systematic use of tests to quantify psychophysical behavior, abilities, and problems and to make predictions about psychological performance.”  

 The origins of psychological testing: 

Psychological testing in its modern form originated little more than 100 years ago in laboratory studies of sensory discrimination, motor skills, and reaction time. 

Francis Galton invented the first battery of tests. 

 Rudimentary forms of testing in China in 2200 b.c: 

Rudimentary forms of testing date back to at least 2200 b.c when the Chinese emperor has his officials examined every third year to determine their fitness for office.

 Such testing was modified and refined over the centuries until written exams were introduced in the Han dynasty.

 The testing practices were unnecessarily gruelling, and the Chinese also failed to validate their selection procedures. But the examination program incorporated relevant selection criteria. 

 Physiognomy, phrenology, and the psychograph:

 Physiognomy:   based on the notion that we can judge the inner character of people from their outward appearance, especially the face. 

It represents an early form of psychological testing. Interest in physiognomy can be dated back to the fourth century.

Physiognomy remained popular for centuries and laid the foundation for the more specialized form of quackery, phrenology. 

Phrenology: reading „bumps‟ on the head. 

The founding of phrenology is usually attributed to Franz Joseph Gall. 

He argued that the brain is the organ of sentiments and faculties and that these capacities are localized. To the extent that a faculty was well developed, the corresponding component of the brain would be enlarged and in turn form a bump because the skill conforms the shape of the brain.  

Johann Spurzheim popularized phrenology. 

The psychograph: was a machine that measured phrenoloy. And this is made by Henry C. Lavery in 1931. 

 The brass instruments era of testing: 

Experimental psychology flourished in the late 1800s in continental Europe and Great Britain. Human abilities were tested in laboratories with objective procedures that were capable of replication. 

The problem with experimental psychology was that it mistook simple sensory processes for intelligence. They used assorted brass instruments to measure sensory thresholds and reaction times, thinking that such abilities were at the heart of intelligence. Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig. 

He believed that the speed of thought might differ from one person to the next.

 Galton and the first battery of mental tests: 

Francis Galton (1822-1911) pioneered the new experimental psychology in Great Britain. He was obsessed with measurements. 

Galton demonstrates that individual differences not only exist but also are objectively measurable. Galton continued the tradition of brass instruments, but with an important difference. His procedures were much more amenable to the timely collection of data from hundreds if not thousands of subjects. 

The tests and measures involved both the physical and behavioral domains. He demonstrated that objective tests could be devised and that meaningful scores could be obtained through standardized procedures.

 Cattell imports brass instruments to the United States: 

James McKeen Cattell studied the new experimental psychology with both Wundt and Galton before settling at Columbia University where, for 26 years, he was the undisputed dean of American psychology. 

Cattell wanted to study individual differences and he did that study. He invented the term „mental test‟. 

Wissler made experimental psychology turn away from the brass instruments approach. In 1905, Binet introduced his scale of intelligence.

 Rating scales and their origins: 

Rating scales are widely used in psychology as a means of quantifying subjective psychological variables of many kinds. 

A crude form of rating scale can be traced back to Galen, the second century Greco-Roman physician. 

The first person to devise and apply rating scales for psychological variables was Christian Thomasius (1655-1728). 

 Changing conceptions of mental retardation in the 1800s: 

By the early 1800s medical practitioners realized that some of those with psychiatric impairment had reversible illnesses that did not necessarily imply diminished intellect, whereas those with mental retardation showed a greater developmental continuity and invariably had impaired intellect. 

A newfound humanism began to influence social practices toward individuals with psychological and mental disabilities. 

With this humanism there arose a greater interest in the diagnosis and remediation of mental retardation. 

Esquirol and diagnosis in mental retardation: 

Around the beginning of the nineteenth century, many physicians had begun to perceive the difference between mental retardation and mental illness. 

Esquirol (1772-1840) was the first to formalize the difference in writing. He proposed the first classification system in mental retardation and language skills were the main diagnostic criteria. Seguin and education of individuals with mental retardation: 

Edouard Seguin helped establish a new humanism toward those with mental retardation in the late 1800s. 

 Influence of Binet‟s early research on his test: 

Alfred Binet (1857-1911) invented the first modern intelligence test in 1905. Binet was a prolific researcher and author long before he turned his attentions to intelligence testing. 

Binet and testing for higher mental processes: 

Binet argued that intelligence could be better measured by means of the higher psychological processes rather than elementary sensory processes such as reaction time. Binet and Simon were called to develop a practical tool for selecting children for which special placement in schools was needed.

Thus arose the first formal scale for assessing the intelligence of children. The scale was appropriate for assessing the entire gamut of intelligence. The purpose was classification, not measurement.

 The revised scales and the advent of IQ: 

In 1908, Binet and Simon published a revision of 1905 scale. The major innovation of 1908 scale was the introduction of the concept of mental level. The idea of deriving a mental level was a monumental development that was to influence the character of intelligence testing throughout the twentieth century (later mental age). 

 Testing form the early 1900s to the present: 

With the successful application of Binet’s mental test, psychologists realized that their inventions could have pragmatic significance for many different segments of society. The profusion of tests developed early in the twentieth century helped shape the character of contemporary tests. 

 Early used and abuses of tests in the United States: 

First translation of the Binet-Simon scale: Goddhard gained a reputation as one of the leading experts on the use of intelligence tests to identify persons with impaired intellect. He believed that the impaired children should be segregated so that they would be prevented from ‘contaminating society’.

The Binet-Simon immigration: 

When Goddard visits Ellis Island, he became convinced that the rates of feeblemindedness were much higher than estimated by the physicians who staffed the immigration service. He became a apostle for the use of intelligence tests to identify feebleminded immigrants. Goddard’s schlarly views were influenced by the social ideologies of his time. 

Testing for giftedness: Leta Stetter Hollingworth 

One of the earliest uses of IQ tests was testing for giftedness. 

Hollingworth demonstrated that children with high genius showed significantly greater school achievement than those of mere ordinary genius. She dispelled the belief that gifted children should not be moved ahead in school because they would lag behind older children in penmanship and other motor skills. She advanced the science of IQ testing. She proposed a revolving fund from which gifted children could draw for their development.

The Stanford-Binet: The early mainstay of IQ 

It was Stanford professor Lewis M. Terman (1857-1956) who popularized IQ testing with his revision of the Binet scales in 1916. 

The Stanford-Bined was a substantial revision. 

It was the standard of intelligence testing for decades. 

 Group tests and the classification of WWI army recruits: 

Researchers sought group mental test to supplement tests imported from France. 

Group test were slow to catch on, partly because the early versions still had to be scored laboriously by hand. 

The slow pace of developments in group testing picked up dramatically as the United States entered WWI. 

Robert M. Yerkes convinced the U.S. government and the army that all of its recruits should be given intelligence tests for purposes of classification and assignment. It gave rise to the army Alpha and the army Beta. 

The army Alpha and Beta examinations: 

The alpha consisted of eight verbally loaded tests for average and high-functioning recruits. The army beta was a nonverbal group test designed for the use with illiterates and recruits whose first language was not English. 

The army testing was intended to help segregate and eliminate the mentally incompetent, to classify men according to their mental ability, and to assist in the placement of competent men in responsible positions. 

Yerkes’s grand scheme for testing army recruits helped to usher in the era of group tests. Machine scoring was introduced in the 1930s, making objective group tests even more efficient than before. 

 The development of the aptitude tests: 

Aptitude tests measure more specific and delimited abilities than intelligence tests. A single aptitude test will measure just one ability domain. The development of aptitude tests lagged behind of that of intelligence tests for two reasons 

 Statistical 

A new technique, factor analysis, was often needed to discern which aptitudes were primary and, therefore, distinct from each other. Research on this was not refined until the 1930s

 Social 

The absence of a practical application for such refined instruments. It was not until WWII that a pressing need arose to select candidates who were highly qualified for very difficult and specialized tasks. 

Personality and vocational testing after WWI: 

It was not until WWI that personality tests emerged in a form resembling their contemporary appearance. 

It was needed to detect which army recruits were vulnerable for psychoneurosis. Made by Woodworth. In addition, the MMPI introduced the use of validity scales to determine fake bad, fake good, and random response patterns. 

The origins of projective testing: 

The projective approach originated with the word association method pioneered by Galton. Also the Rorschach ink bolds. 

The development of interest inventories: 

Psychologists were devising measures for guidance and counselling of the masses of more normal persons. 

The interest inventory, which has roots going back to Thorndike. 

The emergence of structured personality tests: 

Beginning in the 1940s, personality tests began to flourish as useful tools for clinical evaluation and also for assessment of the normal spectrum of functioning. 

The expansion and proliferation of testing: 

In the twenty-first century, the reach of testing continues to increase. Both in one-to-one clinical uses and in group testing from societal applications. 

Evidence-based practice and outcomes assessment: 

Evidence-based practice: the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values. The advance of evidence-based practice is part of a worldwide trend to require proof that treatments and interventions yield measurable positive outcomes.

Different Types of Test:- 

Psychological tests can be various types; designed to measure different elements of human brain development. You can go through a few major categories of the psychological tests. 

Intelligence Tests: - 

These of course measure the level of intelligence present in the individual. It also assesses the person’s ability to relate to its foreign environment. Some of the well-known and widely used tests of this category are, 

 Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale 

 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 

 Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale 

Personality Tests: - 

These tests measure the type and traits of the individual’s personality. These tests are used for clinical purposes. Examples of some commonly known attitude tests are as follows, 

 Rorschach or Inkblot test 

 Thematic Apperception Test 

 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory or MMPI 

Attitude Tests: - 

The individual’s attitude towards the environment, other people or places is judged in this kind of test. Some common examples are, 

 Likert Scale 

 Thurstone Scale 

Neuro-psychology Tests: - The Neuro-psychological tests are usually conducted when an individual has suffered a traumatic stress or injury. To check the proper cognitive functioning of the brain, these kinds of tests are conducted. Some typical examples of these tests include, 

 Benton Visual Retention Test 

 Wisconsin Card Sorting Test 

 Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery 

Achievement Tests: - Achievement tests are also a type of psychological tests that measure your ability to comprehend a specific topic; for example, mathematics. You can read through the following cases: Peabody Individual Achievement Test 

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test 

Aptitude Tests: - The aptitude tests measure the potential of performance in a person. Examples are, 

 Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery 

 Bloomberg Aptitude Test