Introduction to Psychological Testing
Psychology of Testing & Measurements
Chapter 1 - Lecture

Psychological Assessment
A process of understanding and helping people cope with problems in which tests are used to help collect meaningful information about the person and his or her environment.

Applied it involves four steps:
    identifying the problem
    information gathering
    understanding the information
    coping with the problem

Historical Overview
Early antecedents
    Early Chinese – Han and Ming Dynasties
    British used Chinese testing programs to select employees for overseas study and civil service
    French and Germans followed suit.
Individual Differences
    Charles Darwin
    Sir Francis Galton
    James McKeen Cattell –
Psychophysical measurement
    Herbart
    Weber
    Fechner
    Wundt

History of Intelligence and Achievement Tests
Intelligence and standardized achievement tests
    Binet-Simon Scale (1905) – importance of representative sample
    WWI (1916) – APA assisted group testing
    Achievement (1920s-1930s) – standardized tests were objective, easy to grade, identical testing     conditions feasible, reliable
Continuous improvements - increased standardization sample size and emergence of Wechler-Bellevue Scale yielding several scores, including nonverbal

History of Personality Tests
Emerged after WWII to measure traits – stable characteristics to think, feel, or behave in a certain way.
    Woordworth Personality Data Sheet

Movement toward Projective tests
    Rorschach inkblot test (1921-1932)
    Thematic Apperception Test (1935)
    MMPI (1943)
    16PF Questionnaire (1940s)

Approaching today…
1954 declaration by APA that psychological testing is a function of psychologists apart from physicians.
Emergence of industrial, educational, counseling, and school psychology in 1950s
Emergence of health, forensic, child, and neuropsychology in the last 25 years.

Summary of Types of Tests
Ability tests
Achievement
Aptitude
Intelligence
Personality tests
    Structured
    Projective
Interest Assessment
Environmental Assessment
    College Characteristics Index (based on field theory & “need-press” model)
    Series of Social Climate Scales (published in Annual Review of Psychology)
Professional Publications
    Significant early books - The Principles of Teaching : Based on Psychology
    Clinical Psychiatry (1907), Choosing a Vocation (1909)
    Mental Measurements Yearbook (1938)
    Test Critiques (1984)
    Dictionary of Occupational Titles (1939)
    Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1952)
    Standards for Educational & Psychological Tests & Manuals (1966)

Overview of the book
Principles of psychological testing

Applications of psychological testing

Issues of psychological testing