Psychological Testing and Assessment

• Psychometric properties are critical when constructing, selecting, and interpreting psychological tests.

Psychological Testing

• It measures psychology-related variables using specific tools to sample behavior
• Results are numerical in nature.
• Can be administered to individuals or groups.
• Interchangeable administrators do not impact the evaluation.
• Requires skills in administration and scoring
• It yields a test score, or a series of scores.
• Can take a few minutes to hours to administer.

Psychological Assessment

• It involves gathering and putting psychology-related data together to evaluate someone psychologically.
• The process answers referral questions.
• Relies on different types of evaluation tools
• Always done individually
• Relies on the assessor selecting tools and interpreting results
• Requires skill, thoughtful organization, and integration of evaluation data
• It involves logical problem-solving to answer referral questions.
• Educational assessments evaluate school-related skills.
• Retrospective assessments draw conclusions about past psychological aspects.
• Remote assessments occur when the subject is not physically present.
• Ecological Momentary assessments evaluate problems in real-time.
• Collaborative assessments involve assessors and examinees working together.
• Therapeutic assessments encourage self-discovery through the process.
• Dynamic assessments use an interactive approach following an evaluation, intervention, evaluation model.

Psychological Test Components

• Content is the subject matter.
• Format involves the form, plan, structure, arrangement, and layout.

Item (Test Component)

• A specific stimulus that prompts an overt response, which is then scored.

Administration Procedures

• Can be one-on-one or in a group.

Score

• A code or summary of a statement reflecting test performance.

Scoring

• The process of assigning scores to performances.

Cut-Score

• A reference point used to divide data into classifications, derived by judgement

Psychometric Soundness

• The technical quality of a test.

Psychometrics

• The science of psychological measurement.

Psychometrist or Psychometrician

• A professional who uses, analyzes, and interprets psychological data.

Ability or Maximal Performance Test

• Evaluates what a person can do.

Achievement Test

• Measures previous learning.
• Assesses general knowledge over a specific time.
• Determines mastery.
• Relies mostly on content validity.
• Is fact-based or conceptual.

Aptitude Test

• Reflects the potential to learn a specific skill.
• Focuses on informal learning.
• Emphasizes predictive validity.

Intelligence test

• Reflects a person's ability to solve problems.
• Adapts to new environments.
• Thinks abstractly, and learns from experience.
• Considerable overlap exists between these tests in practice

Typical Performance Test

• It measures usual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Shows how test-takers act daily.
• Uses interval scales.
• Has no right or wrong answers

Personality Test

• It Measures individual dispositions and preferences.
• Designed to identify one's characteristics.
• Measured ideographically or nomothetically.

Structured Personality tests

• Provides a statement and relies on self-report
• Requires choosing between two or more options.

Projective Personality Tests

• These tests are unstructured
• The stimulus or response is ambiguous.