What Are Psychological Tests? - SAGE Publications Inc

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.

2 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. 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.

3 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.

4 I couldn tbelieveevery-thingth ey mademe do. I had to parallel park,switchlanes,and mak e both righ t and le ft turns. 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.

5 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. 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?

6 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.

7 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.

8 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? 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.

9 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?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.

10 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.