What Are Psychological Tests?

1 3 WhatArePsychologicalTests?CHAPTER1Af ter completingyourstudyof thi s chapter ,you shouldbe ableto do the following: Definewhata psychologicalte st is andun derstandth at Psychological te sts extendbeyondpersonalityandintelligenc e test s. Tracethehistory of psychologicaltestingfromAlfredBinet andintelligence testingto thetests of today. Describethewayspsychologicaltestscanbe si milar to an d different fromoneanother. Describethethreecharacteristicsthatareco mmontoallpsy chologicaltests, andunderstandthatpsychologicaltestscande monstrateth esechar acteristics tovariousdegrees. Describetheas sumptionsthatmustbe madewhenusing psy chologicaltes ts. Describethedifferentwaysthatpsychologica lte sts canbe classif ied. Describethedifferencesam on g fourcommonlyusedtermsthatstudentsoftenge tconfused:psychologicalass essmen t, Psychological tes ts, psy chological measurement,andsurveys.

2 Ide ntifyandlocate print an d online resourcesthatar e availableforlocatinginformationab : WHATARE PSYCHOLOGICALTESTS? WhenI was in the sec on d grade,my tea cher recommendedtha t I be placedin the scho ol a result,the schoolpsy chologistinte rviewed me and had me takeanintel ligencetest. Last seme ster I to ok a classin abno rma l professorhad all of us take seve ralpersonalitytest s, includingthe MMPI[MinnesotaMult iphasicPer sonality Inventory].It was awes ome!We learnedaboutdiff erenttypesof psychologica l disorderstha t the MMPIcan help diagnose . Thi s ye ar I app lied for a summerjob with a a part of the selectionprocess,I hadto par ticip ate in a structuredinterviewand an assessmentcenter. Y esterday I took my driv in g test boththe wri tte n and the roadtest. I couldn tbelieveevery-thingth ey mademe do. I had to parallel park,switchlanes,and mak e both righ t and le ft turns.

3 If yourin structoraskedwhetheryouhave evertakena ps ychologicaltest,youwou ld probably re po rttheinte lligencetest youtookas an elementaryschool studentor thepersonality testyoutookin yourab normal ps yourinstructoraskedwhatth e purpose of psychologicaltestingis, youwo uldprobably say its purpose is to determine whet hersomeoneis gif tedor hasa tel ligencetestsandpersonality tests areindeedpsychologicaltests and theyareind eedusedtoidentifygiftednessanddiagnose psychologicaldi so rders. However,thisis onlya snapshotof whatpsy -cholog ica l testingis all about. There are manytypesof psychologicaltests, thischapter, weintroduceyouto theconceptof psy chological a psycho-logicaltestis and introducesometestsyoumightneverhaveconsi deredto be ,afterexploringthehistoryof psycholog icaltestin g, wediscussth e threedefiningcharacteristicsof psy-chological testsandtheassumptionsthatmustbe madewhenusing thesetests.

4 Weth en turnouratten-tionto th e man y waysof classifyingtests. Wealsodi st in guishfourconceptstha t studentsoften getconfused:psychologicalassessment,ps yc hological tests, psy ch ologicalmeasurement, sharing withyo u someof the resources(print andonline) tha t areavailableforlocatinginformationabout psychologicaltestin g andspecificpsy chological y Sh ould You Car e AboutPsychological Testing?Beforediscussingwhata psychologicaltestis , wewouldlikeyouto understandjusthowim portant itis fo r yo u to understandthefo undationsof notjustanother subjectthatyouma y studyin college; rather, it is a topicthatpersonallyaffectsma ny indi-vi ,psychologicaltestsareadministered by ma ny differentpr ofessionalsto manydiffer-en t individuals,andth e results of thesetestsare used in waysth at significantlyaffectyouandth osearoundyo u. Forexample,te st scores areus ed to di agnosemen taldisorders,to det erminewhethermedicinesshouldbe pres cribed(a nd,if so , which ones), to treat men talan d emotional illnesses,toselectindividualsforjo bs,to selectindividualsforun dergraduateandprofessional schools(forexam-ple,medicalschool,lawsch ool), andto determinegrades.

5 Goodtestsfacilitat e high-quality decisions,andbadtestsfacilitatelo w- quality co nsequencesof baddecisionsca n be ,a poorhiringdecisioncandra -matically affect boththe personbeing hiredandth e m theorganization s pe r-spective,a poorhiringdecision canresult in in creasedabsenteeism,reduced moraleof other staff,andlostproductivityandrev omthe employee s perspe ctive, a po or hiring decisionmayresult in alossof motivation,increasedstressleadingto depressionan d anxiety, andperhaps los s of opportu nityto4 SEC TION I:OVERVIEWOF PSYCH OLOGICAL TESTING makeprogressin hisor thoughyo u might neveradminister,score, or interpreta tes t, it isverylikelythatyouor someoneyo u knowmay have a lif e-altering decisionma de abouthimor he r , it is importantthatyouunderstan d thefoundationsof Psychological testing,specifically howto tellwhethera decisionis a goodor do thisreq uiresthatyouun derstandthefoundat ionsof ps ychologicalte at Are Psyc ho log ical Tests?

6 Eachanecdote at thebeg in ni ng of thischapterinvolvestheus e of a psyc ,personalitytests,interestandvocationali nventories, co llegeen tranceexams,classroomtests,structuredint erviews,assessmentcenters,anddri vingtestsall arepsychological theself-scoredteststhatyoufindin magazinessuchasGla mourandSe ve nteen(teststhatsupposedlytellyouhowyoufe elaboutyourfriends , stress,love,andmore) canbe consideredps ychologicalte thoughsomearemoretyp -ical, all meetthedefinitionof a psychologi calte st. Together,theyconveytheverydiffere nt purposes ofpsycholo gicaltes ts . Fora continuumof someof themostan d leastcommonly recognizedtypesof psy -chological tests, seeFi .Similarities AmongPsychologicalTestsPsycholo gicaltestingis bestdef inedas theprocessof administering, scoring,andinterpretingpsy -chological tes ts (Maloney& Ward,1976,p. 9).Butwhatexactly is a psychologicaltest?

7 Wecaneas ilyan sw er thi s questionby consideringwhatall , allpsychologicaltestsrequirea personto performsomebehavior anobservableand mea -su rableacti ample,when stu dentstakea multi ple -choicemidtermex am,th ey mustread thevar ious answersforeachitemandide intelligence test,theymaybe askedto definewordsor solvemath in a structuredjobin ter view,individualsmustrespondto questionsfromth e interviewer questionssu ch as T ell meabouta timewhenyouhadto dealwi th an upsetcustomer. Whatwasth e situation,what didyou do,andwh at wasth e outcome? In eachof thesecases,individualsareperformingsome observableandmeasura bl e pter 1:What Ar e PsychologicalTes ts? 5 LessTypicalRoadportionof drivingtestStructuredemploymentinterview sAssessmentcentersSelf-scoredmagazinetes tsClassroomquizzesandexamsVocationaltest sInterestinventoriesAchievementtestsAbil itytestsMoreTypicalPersonalitytestsIntel ligencetestsFig ure Continuumof Psychol ogical TestsSecond,thebehavioran individualperformsis used to measuresomepersonalatt ri bute,trai t, orcharacteristic tha t is thoughtto be importantin describingor understandinghuman behavio r.

8 Forexample,thequestionsona multiple-choiceexammightmeasureyou r knowledgeof a particularsubjectareasuchas rdsyoudefinedor themathproblemsyousolvedmight measureyourve rbalabilityor qu is alsoimporta nt to notethatsome-timesth e behavioran individualperforms is alsousedto makea prediction ,thequestionsyo u answereddu ri ng a structuredjobinterviewmaybe usedto predictyoursuccessin a management , wh at is a psychologicaltest? It is somethingthatrequiresyouto performa behaviorto measuresome personalattribute, trait, or characteristic or to predict an rencesAmongPsychologicalTestsAlthoughall psychologicaltestsrequirethatyouperforms omebehaviorto me asu re personalatt rib -ut es, traits,or characteristicsor to pre dictoutcomes, the se tes ts ca n differin va r ex ample,theyca n differin termsof the behavior th ey require youto perform,whattheymeasure, theircontent,howtheyareadministeredandfo rmatted,howth ey arescoredandinterpreted,andtheirpsychome tri cquality (psyc hometricsis the quantit ativeand technicalaspectof mentalmeasurement).

9 BehaviorPerformedThe behaviorsa tes t takermustperform varyby , a popular in telligencetest,theWechslerAdultIntellige nceSc ale fo urt h ed iti on(WAIS-IV),a genera l testofad ultintelligence,requirestesttakersto (amongotherthings)definewords, repeat listsof di git s, explainwhatis mi ssingfr ompictures, andarrangeblocksto duplica te geometric ca rd desi ThematicApperception Test(T AT),a widely usedandresearchedprojectivepe rsonality testde sig nedat Ha rv ardUniversity in the1930s,requirestesttakersto lookat am biguous pictures showing a varietyof socialan d inte rpersonalsi tuationsandto tell e GraduateRecordExaminations(GRE)GeneralTe st,a gra duate schoolad missi onstestthatmeasuresverbalan d quantitat ivereasoning, critical th ink -ing,andan al yticalwritingski lls,requirestestta kersto answermultiple-choice questi onsandre spondto e roadportionof an autodrivingtesttyp icallyreq uirestesttakers todo thingssuchas starta car,changelanes,makeri gh t an d leftturns,useturnsignals pr op erly,and pa r-al lel park.

10 Assessmentcenters requirejobap plicant s to participatein simulate d job-relatedactivit ies(thatmimictheactiviti es theywouldperformin thejob)suc h as engagingin confr ontational me etingswithdisgruntled employees, pr ocessinge- mailan d pa perwork,an d co nducting ma nagerbriefings .AttributeMeasuredandOutcomePredictedWha t a testmeasuresor predictscanva , the WAIS-IVasksindividualsto explainwhatis miss ingfrompictures to measureve individualsto te ll st o-ri es aboutpicturesto ide ntifyco nscious an d unconsc iousdrives, em ot ion s, co nflicts,andso on in orderto ultimatelymeasur e persona a drivingtestrequiresin div idualsto pe rformvariousdr ivingbehaviorsto measuredri vingab ili ty . TheGRErequiresst udents to an swer di ff erentty pesof qu es tionsto predictsuccessin graduatesch SEC TION I:OVERVIEWOF PSYCH OLOGICAL TESTINGS omeof thecharacteristics,at tri butes,andtraitsco mmon ly mea-suredby ps ychologicaltests includepersonality, intelligence,mo tiva-tio n, mechanicalabi lity,vo cationalpreference,spatial abi lity,an dan theout comesthatte ststypicallypredict inc lud esuccessin college, workerproductivit y, andwhowillbenefit fro mspecializedservicessuchas cli ni , at tribute, or traitca n requireind ividuals to performsignificantl y differentbehaviorsor to answersig nificantlydi fferent e testdevelopers definetheparticularch aracteristic,at tribute, or traitaffectsho w thetestis.