Chapter 15 COMPUTERS AND BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN TESTING

NAME OF TEST ACRONYM AGE DESCRIPTION MEASURES/ASSESS… STRENGTH/LIMITATION

AUTHOR/PUBLISHER APPLICABLE
The Fear Survey FSS Children as  the oldest and most researched of the  measuring specific  has been subjected to anything
Schedule well as adults cognitive-behavioral self-report procedures phobias close to an adequate
Akutagawa (1956)  Items are typically related to situations that  attempts to identify psychometric analysis
involve fear and avoidance behaviors those situations that
elicit fear and thus
avoidance
The Assertive Behavior ABSS  Self-report questionnaire for assertiveness
Inventory Schedule
Self-Report Battery 
Cautela and Upper
(1976)
The Dysfunctional DAS   Identifies beliefs that  The validity of the scale is
Attitude Scale might interact with a supported by a variety of factor
A. T. Beck’s (1967, 1976, stressor to produce analytic data.
2002) psychopathology 
Irrational Beliefs Test IBT  100-item  to measure irrational  widespread use in clinical setting
 The IBT requires subjects to indicate their beliefs and has received considerable
R.A. Jones level of agreement or disagreement with each attention
of the 100 items on a 5-point scale (e.g., “I  test-retest coefficients for short
frequently worry about things over which I intervals ranging from .48 to .90
have no control”). Half of the items indicate for individual scales and .88 for full
the presence of a particular irrational belief; scale
the other half, its absence.  The validity documentation is
weak, both related to anxiety and
depression
Irrational Beliefs IBI  To improve upon some of the weaknesses of  Irrational beliefs  Consistent psychometric
Inventory the IBT properties across several cultures
 Measures cognition rather than affect  Internal consistency is acceptable,
 Uses a 5-point scale and consists of five and the five subscales were found
subscales: worrying, rigidity, need for to be independent of each other.
approval, problem avoidance, and emotional  Useful in clinical and research
irresponsibility settings when exploring the role of
irrational beliefs in obsessive-
compulsive disorder, social
phobias, and therapy for
 depression

Chapter 16 Testing in Counseling Psychology

NAME OF TEST ACRONYM AGE DESCRIPTION MEASURES/ASSESS… STRENGTH/LIMITATION
AUTHOR/PUBLISHER APPLICABLE
Strong Vocational SVIB  Created after the criterion-group approach method  patterns of interest
Interest Blank  Items in the SVIB were weighted according to how
frequently an interest occurred in a particular
occupational group as opposed to how frequently
it occurred in the general population.
 399 items were related to 54 occupations for men.
A separate form presented 32 different
occupations for women.
Strong-Campbell SCII  New version of SVIB Occupational Interest 
Interest Inventory  response to the shortcomings of the SVIB
 most widely used interest inventory today
D. P. Campbell. 1974  Items from both the men’s and women’s forms of
the SVIB were merged into a single form that
included scales devoid of gender bias
 The SCII in its current form is divided into seven
parts has 325 items, to which a person responds
“like,” “dislike,” or “indifferent”
 Score Summaries (4 scales):
[1] general themes based on Holland’s six
personality types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic,
Social, Enterprising, Conventional),
[2] administrative indexes, [3] Person’s basic
interests, [4] Occupational Scales
 The SCII is no longer used very much because it
has been replaced by newer tests
The Campbell Interest CISS   Degree of interest and  shorter and more efficient than
and Skill Survey Degree of skill the older SCII.
Campbell, 1992  Uses the theoretical structure of
Holland
 Extensive evidence of reliability
and validity
 New evidence continues to
 support the validity of the CISS
Strong Interest SII   Interest  Substantial concurrent validity
Inventory (new) for variety of college major
choices
 The basic interest scales were
the best predictors of selection
of major
The Kuder KOIS High school  Previously known as the Kuder Preference Survey  Occupational interest  Psychometric properties are
Occupational Interest age  Second most widely used interest inventory today very good
Survey  one of several interest scales that grew out of the  Short-term reliabilities tend to
original Kuder Preference Survey published in be high
1939  Scores are stable as long as 30
 offered a unique alternative to the SVIB, SCII, and years
CISS  Predictive validity for college
 Presents the test taker with 100 triads (sets of majors is good
three) of alternative activities. For each triad, the  Maybe quite useful for guidance
test taker selects the most preferred and the least decisions for high school and
preferred alternatives. Scoring of the KOIS scales college students
gives the same information yielded by the earlier
Kuder Preference Surveys—data on 10 general
occupational interests (e.g., outdoor interests
versus social service interests).
 separate norms for men and women; separate
scales for college Majors
 the National Career Assessment Service became
the international distributor for the KOIS
 The report is divided into four sections:
 [1] summarizes the dependability of the results,
 [2] rank orders interest patterns in comparison to
the normative sample of men and women,
 [3] ranks the test taker in relation to men and
women who are employed in different occupations
and are satisfied with their career choices,
 [4] matches patterns of interests to those of
students who have selected different college
majors.
 In its current form KOIS examines the similarity
between a test taker’s interests and those of
people employed in various occupations in a

Jackson Vocational
Interest Survey (JVIS)
Douglas Jackson
Career Assessment CAI
Inventory
Charles B. Johansson
manner much like that of the SCII and CISS.
 Suggesting which occupational group might work
best with a test taker’s interests
 May help students choose a Major
 Contains non-traditional occupations for men and
women
 Used for career education and counselling of high  Occupational interest  Reliability for 10 general
school and college students occupational themes is
 Used to plan careers for adults including those approximately .89 and that the
who want to make midlife career changes. test-retest stability of the 44
 Consists of 289 statements describing job-related basic interest scales ranges
activities from .84 to .88
 It takes 45 minutes to complete and the scoring  Validity studies that JVIS
yields 34 basic interest scales predicts university and
 The test construction carefully avoided gender academic majors more
bias accurately than do most other
 Employ forced choice formats in which the interest inventories.
respondent must indicate a preference between
two equally popular interests.
 Hand-scored and machine scored
 designed for people not oriented toward careers  Career choice  Has a desirable psychometric
requiring college or professional training properties
 written at the sixth-grade reading level and is  Scores tend to be stable
designed for the 80% of U.S. citizens who have  Culturally fair, eliminate gender
fewer than four years of postsecondary education bias
 Each test taker is evaluated on Holland’s six
occupational theme scales: realistic, investigative,
artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.
 The second portion of the CAI report describes
basic interests. Each test taker is evaluated in 22
specific areas, including carpentry, business, and
food service. The third section of the report is a
series of occupational scales. Scores for the 89
occupational scales on the CAI were obtained by
using a criterion-keying method. The interests of
the test takers are matched to the interests of
truck drivers, secretaries, waitpersons, and so
forth.
 Somewhat the working person’s working survey
The Self-Directed SDS  self-scored, and self-interpreted vocational  Career interest  Test takers can score their own
Search interest inventory  Readiness for career test
 attempts to simulate the counseling process by decision making and  Allow test taker to interact with
J. L. Holland allowing respondents to list occupational readiness to obtain computer-assisted guidance
aspirations, indicate occupational preferences in guidance system
six areas, and rate abilities and skills in these  Available on-line and users
areas appear to be more satisfied
 personal career theorythe test takers can score than those who respond to the
their own inventory and calculate six summary paper-and-pencil version
scores, which they can use 
 to obtain codes that reflect the highest areas of
interest linked to an occupational finder
 Includes 228 items. Six scales with 11 items each
describe activities. Another 66 items assess
competencies, with six scales of 11 items each.
Occupations are evaluated in six scales of 14
items each. Self-estimates are obtained in two
sets of six ratings.

Chapter 17 – Testing in Health Psychology and Health Care

NAME OF TEST ACRONYM AGE DESCRIPTION MEASURES/ASSESS… STRENGTH/LIMITATION
AUTHOR/PUBLISHE APPLICABLE
R
Halstead-Reitan Adults  The process of habilitation   available in different versions for
Neuropsychological (different requires at least seven steps: children and adults
Battery version for (1) assessment of the child, (2)  Disadvantage: requires 8 to 12
children) assessment of the hours to administer
Ward Halstead and environment, (3) predictions  A large number of studies validate
Ralph M. Reitan about short- and long-term the Halstead and Reitan
outcomes, (4) development of procedures
an ideal plan, (5) assessment  The battery can assist in localizing
of resources, (6) development injury in either the left or right
of a realistic intervention plan, hemisphere of the brain.
and (7) ongoing assessment.  New methods of brain imaging (MRI
 Patients assessed by the and CT scan) may be more efficient
Halstead-Reitan battery often for locating injury
receive the full Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality
 Inventory (MMPI) to evaluate
their emotional state in
response to a medical
situation.
 The battery also includes a full
WAIS.
 Most of the studies show that
performance on specific
subtasks of the Halstead-
Reitan battery is associated
with dysfunction in one of the
two hemispheres of the brain.
 Components of the Halstead-
Reitan Neuropsychological
Battery for Adults: [1] Halstead
category test [2] Tactual test
(time, memory, localization) [3]
Rhythm test [4] Speech-
sounds perception test [5]
Finger oscillation test [6]
Related Procedures [7] Trail-
making test [8] Strength-of-grip
test [9] Sensory–perceptual
examination
Luria-Nebraska Adults  Luria did not acknowledge that  neuropsychological assessment 
Neuropsychological (different any single area was solely  intuitive judgments about deficits in
Battery version for responsible for any particular functional systems
children) behavior. Instead, Luria saw  estimate the area of the brain
Luria, 1966, 1973 the brain as a functional damaged by a tumor or lesion
system, with a limited number
of brain areas involved in each
behavior. Each area in the
functional system might be
considered a necessary link in
a chain. If any link is injured,
the total system will break
down.
 Pluripotentiality: states that
any one center in the brain can
be involved in several different
 functional systems. Multiple
systems might be responsible
for the same behavior. Thus, if
a child’s injury affects one
system, another system may
take over.
 includes 269 items that are
divided into 11 subsections:
Motor Functions, Rhythm,
Tactile, Visual, Receptive
Speech, Expressive Speech,
Reading, Arithmetic Skills,
Memory, Intellectual
Processes
 Golden (1981) developed a
standardized version of Luria’s
procedures.
California Verbal CVLT Adults  a relatively new approach to  determines how errors are made in  Versions for both the PC and the
Learning Test clinical neuropsychology that learning tasks Macintosh are available
builds on research in  identify different strategies,  one can administer it either in a
psychological testing, cognitive processes, and errors that are paper-and-pencil form or with a
psychology, and computer associated with specific deficits microcomputer
science  attempts to link memory deficits with  In the computer-assisted form of
 includes other features derived impaired performance on specific the test, the examiner can enter
from experimental cognitive tasks for people who have known responses directly into the
psychology neurological problems computer using a single key or a
 assesses various variables, including light pen to touch the words on a
levels of recall and recognition, monitor screen. This greatly
semantic and serial strategies, serial facilitates and speeds up the
position effects, learning rates across scoring process.
trials, consistency of item recall  the test correlates with other
across trials, degree of vulnerability measures such as the Wechsler
to proactive and retroactive memory scale
interference, retention of information  factor analysis studies of the CVLT
over short and long delays, and suggest independent factors for
learning errors in recall and learning strategy, acquisition rate,
recognition serial position, discriminability, and
learning performance.
 The diversity of deficits identified by
the CVLT could not be identified

California Verbal CVLT-C Children aged  individually administered
Learning Test—C 5–16  In a typical testing session, the
child may receive a list of 15
words on Monday and an
interference list of 15 words on
Tuesday. After the interference
list, the child is tested on the
Monday list. After a 20-minute
delay, a nonverbal test is
administered, followed by tests
of long-delay free recall and
long-delay cued recall, then a
test designed to assess
recognition of the words that
were administered the day
before.
 Produce several different
scores including total recall,
learning strategy, serial
position effect, learning rate,
consistency of item recall,
proactive and retroactive
interference, and retention
over long and short delays.
Automated ANAM  quick computerized
Neuropsychological interpretation of
Metrics neuropsychological tests
 ANAM can efficiently screen
people with cognitive changes
 includes a variety of different
tasks including code
 can be used to evaluate mild to
severe learning disabilities, attention
deficit disorder (ADD), mental
retardation, and other neurological
disorders
 provides information for the
diagnosis of psychiatric disorders
 assesses both recall and recognition
of words
 
using more-traditional psychometric
tests
 The CVLT has been used to
compare patients with Alzheimer’s
disease, Korsakoff’s syndrome, and
Huntington’s disease.
 it allows a more precise evaluation
of the nature of the problems than
do other tests.
 The test was standardized on a
large national sample.
 Internal consistency and alpha
reliabilities for the test are generally
high (usually above .80 for all age
levels).
 provides substantially more
diagnostic information
 It is beginning to find a variety of
clinical uses. For example, recent
studies suggest that the CVLT can
be used to detect whether patients
are faking head injury in order to
gain benefits
The measure has now been used in
a variety of clinical populations
including studies of patients with
multiple sclerosis, lupus,
Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s
disease, brain injury, and migraine
headache.
 substitution, code substitution
recognition, matching two
samples, mathematics,
running memory, and logical
reasoning.
The State-Trait STAI  provides two separate scores:
Anxiety Inventory one for state anxiety (A-State)
and another for trait anxiety
(A-Trait)
 The STAI A-Trait scale
consists of 20 items. On a 4-
point scale, subjects indicate
how they generally feel about
each item. A similar set of
items is used to evaluate the
A-State.
 The STAI trait scale has been
correlated with the Taylor
Manifest Anxiety Scale; it was
also associated with another
trait-anxiety scale known as
the Institute for Personality
and Ability Testing (IPAT)
Anxiety Scale for the same
groups of college students and
psychiatric patients.
 the two components clearly assess
different aspects of anxiety
 responsive to cognitive changes
that result from neurological
disorders
 The reliability of performance on
these tasks tends to be in the
moderate range with few
coefficients above .8. Studies have
suggested that the math and
running memory tasks are
associated with measures that
would be expected to correlate with
cognitive functioning. These include
performances on time limited
attention tasks and working
memory tasks. Overall, there is
reasonably good evidence for the
validity of the ANAM
 STAI trait scale correlates well with
other measures of trait anxiety
 Good evidence exists for the
validity and the reliability of the
STAI. Test–retest reliabilities range
from .73 to .86 for the trait scale.
 The state scale, which is supposed
to be inconsistent over time, indeed
has low test–retest reliability (.16
to .54).
 Other scales that attempt to
measure trait anxiety do not do so
well.
 Each component of the STAI
appears to measure what it is
supposed to measure, and the two
components (A-State and A-Trait)
clearly assess different aspects of
anxiety.
 The STAI is useful because
behavior is influenced by both
situations and personality traits.
 Evidence suggests that the STAI is

The Test Anxiety TAQ  The grandparent of all test-
Questionnaire anxiety measures
 outgrowth of the Mandler and
Seymour Sarason Sarason (1952) test-anxiety
theory
 The theory distinguishes
between two different drives
(Learned Task Drive and
Learned Anxiety Drive), or
motivational states, that
operate in test-taking
situations.
 37-item questionnaire
The Test Anxiety TAS  Irwin Sarason, the brother of
Scale Seymour Sarason (the original
co-developer of test-anxiety
Irwin Sarason, 1958 theory), rewrote the TAQ items
in a true–false format to create
the 21-item Test Anxiety Scale
(TAS).
 assesses a person’s predisposition
to think or act in a way that interferes
with the completion of a task
 measure assesses anxiety
associated with situations
 determines which people are highly
test anxious
reliable and that most items perform
well, even when the test takers are
in extremely stressful situations
 Recent factor analysis studies have
continued to show the two-factor
(A-State and A-Trait) structure.
 The STAI has been translated into
many different languages and is
available in both adult and
children’s versions.
 There are good psychometric
evaluations of many of these forms.
 There are also comparisons
showing modest evidence for the
validity of parent reports of their
children’s anxiety. The STAI has
been validated for older adults and
has been shorted for use in special
populations, such as critically ill
adults.
 Over the years, people have
discovered some inadequacies with
this questionnaire and have
transformed it into other measures
such as the Test Anxiety Scale
 The reliability of the TAQ is high.
Early studies using a group of 100
Yale students demonstrated that
the split-half reliability was .99, and
a coefficient of .82 was obtained in
a test–retest study over a 6-week
period.
 One early criticism of the TAQ was
that it dealt with state anxiety rather
than trait anxiety.
 The first revision of the TAQ began
to consider individual or personality
differences in test anxiety.
 Since the introduction of the TAS,
  the focus on the test-anxiety Sarason has accumulated
problem shifts from the convincing evidence of a
situation in the TAQ to the meaningful distinction between
person in the TAS more and less test-anxious
individuals.
 TAS makes meaningful distinctions
among people; they also suggest
that school performance may be
associated with personality
characteristics other than
intelligence.
 An extensive array of the literature
supports the validity of the TAS as
a measure of personality. The TAS
shows that a combination of high
trait anxiety and high environmental
anxiety produce the most test
anxiety.
Achievement AAT  An 18-item scale that gives  measurement of test anxiety 
Anxiety Test scores for two different
components of anxiety:
Alpert and Haber facilitating and debilitating.
(1960). [facilitating anxiety is helpful,
and debilitating anxiety is
harmful]
Test Anxiety TAICA younger  well validated measure  newer measure
Inventory students who directed toward younger
for Children and may also students who may also have
Adolescents have learning learning disabilities
disabilities
Ways of Coping  A 68-item checklist. 
Scale  The scale includes seven
subscales for problem solving,
Lazarus, 1995; growth, wishful thinking,
Lazarus & Folkman, advice seeking, minimizing
1984 threat, seeking support, and
self-blame. (can be divided
into problem-focused and
emotion-focused strategies)
Ways of Coping  one of the most widely used  Some researchers have offered
questionnaire measures in health psychology
Coping Inventory  33-item measure derived from
clinical interview data
Horowitz & Wilner,  3 categories of items: [1]
1980 describes activities and
attitudes that people use to
avoid stress. [2] involves items
that characterize strategies for
working through stressful
events. [3] considers
socialization responses, or
how each strategy would help
the respondent cope with a
specific stressful event.
Outcome Study SF-36  outcome measure
Short Form-36  includes eight health concepts:
physical functioning, role-
physical, bodily pain, general
health perceptions, vitality,
social functioning, role-
emotional, and mental health
Nottingham Health NHP  has two parts: The first
Profile includes 38 items divided into
six categories: sleep, physical
mobility, energy, pain,
emotional reactions, and social
criticism. For example, some
studies have failed to replicate the
basic factor structure.
 The SF-36 grew out of work by the
RAND Corporation and the Medical
Outcomes Study (MOS)
 The SF-36 can be either
administered by a trained
interviewer or self-administered.
 it is brief, and there is substantial
evidence for its reliability and
validity.
 The SF-36 can be machine-scored
and has been evaluated in large
population studies.
 The reliability and validity of the SF-
36 are well documented
 Disadvantage: it does not have
age-specific questions, and one
cannot clearly determine whether it
is equally appropriate across age
levels
 The NHP is consumer-based and
arises from definitions of health
offered by individuals in the
community.
 this scale uses language that is
 isolation. The second part of
the NHP includes seven
statements related to the
areas of life most affected by
health: employment,
household activities, social life,
home life, sex life, hobbies and
interests, and holidays
Medical College MCAT  a rite of passage for entrance
Admission Test into medical school.
 Starting in 2015, the MCAT will
undergo a significant change.
The most important series of
changes will involve a new
section focusing on several
conceptual areas from the
behavioral and social sciences.
The change in the MCAT follows
a comprehensive review by a
series of prestigious groups
including the Institute of
Medicine of the National
Academy of Sciences and the
American Association of Medical
Colleges.
 The new MCAT also includes a
section on critical analysis and
reasoning. This section was
added to replace the writing
samples sections.
 The plan for the new MCAT was
released in 2011, but the new
test will not be used until 2015.
Chapter 18 – Testing in Business and Industrial Settings
 identify students who are most likely
to succeed with a difficult medical
school curriculum
 the current version tests physical and
biological sciences, verbal reasoning,
and writing skills
 The new psychological, social, and
biological foundations of behavior
section of the test assesses a wide
range of knowledge and draws upon
concepts from psychology, sociology,
biology, research methods, and
statistics.
 Test items then assess the test
takers ability to comprehend the
topics in the passages. These topics
include ethics and philosophy, cross-
cultural studies, and population
health.
easily interpreted by people in the
community and conforms to
minimum reading requirements.
 Substantial testing has been
performed on the NHP; however,
the NHP does not provide relative-
importance weightings across
dimensions. As a result, it is difficult
to compare the dimensions directly
with one another
 administered by computer
 The test is quite demanding and it
takes 5.5 hours to complete.
 Analysis of data
from older MCATs had suggested that the
writing samples were not valid predictors of
medical school success.
 The new critical analysis and
reasoning skills section
uses traditional test formats and presents
passages that need to be read.
NAME OF TEST ACRONYM AGE DESCRIPTION MEASURES/ASSESS… STRENGTH/LIMITATION NAME OF TEST
AUTHOR/PUBLISHE APPLICABLE AUTHOR/PUBLISHER
R
Taylor-Russell  To use this you must  personnel selection  The Taylor-Russell tables also
Tables have the following help reveal the futility of
information: [1] Definition certain types of assessment
of success [2] procedures.
Determination of base
rate [3] Definition of
selection ratio [4]
Determination of validity
coefficient
 give the likelihood that a
person selected on the
basis of the test score will
actually succeed
The Myers-Briggs MBTI I. B. Myers  to determine where people fall  The MBTI is widely used and
Type Indicator and K. C. on the introversion-extroversion has been extensively
Briggs dimension and on which of the researched
four modes they most rely on  review of studies published
I. B. Myers and K. C. between 1996 and 2000
Briggs revealed literally hundreds of
studies that have used the
MBTI in creative ways to study
human personality and its
correlates
Wonderlic Personnel WPT/ WRT-R adults  Based on another   a quick (12-minute) test of
Test popular instrument, the mental ability
Otis Self-Administering  Normative data are available
Tests of Mental Ability on more than 50,000 adults 20
 a quick and stable paper- to 65 years old.
and-pencil intelligence  Odd–even reliability
test with extensive norms coefficients are also excellent,
 Widely used for with a range of .88 to .94
employee-related reported in the manual.
decisions in industry  The main drawback of the
WPT is its validity
documentation, although
available studies tend to
support it
  In the absence of local data,
test scores must be
interpreted with some caution.
 In 2007, a new version of the
Wonderlic, known as the
Wonderlic Personnel Test–
Revised (WRT-R) was
released. The newer version
updates the traditional
Wonderlic and uses newer
technologies for test
administration and scoring.
For most test takers, the new
version can be completed in
about 12 minutes.
Differential Aptitude DAT  assessing clerical competence, 
Test such as speed, accuracy, and
grammar
Bennett  two popular measures of 
Mechanical mechanical ability
Comprehension Test
and the Revised
Minnesota Paper
Form Board
Tests
Accounting  Accounting skills 
Orientation
Test
Admission Test  to assess business skills and 
for Graduate Study in readiness for graduate study in
Business business
Occupational O*NET  The system includes  one can understand divergent  O*NET continues to evolve.
Information Network three categories: (1) occupations in relation to tasks The entire database is
worker requirements, and skills that generalize across available to the public at no
such as skills, occupational categories cost (see ONETCENTER.
knowledge, and abilities;  job analysis ORG). The 2012 data base
(2) experience includes thousands of
requirements, including occupational definitionand the
training and licensure; system is continually updated.
and (3) job requirements,
such as work activities,
work context, and
characteristics of the
organization