Psychological Assessment
Assumptions about Psychological Testing and Assessment
Source: Cohen & Swerdlik (2018), Kaplan & Saccuzzo (2018)
Assumption 1: Psychological Traits and States Exist
o Trait – any distinguishable, relatively enduring
way in which one individual varies from another
▪ Permit people predict the present from the
past
▪ Characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling,
and behaving that generalize across similar
situations, differ systematically between
individuals, and remain rather stable across
time
▪ Psychological Trait – intelligence, specific
intellectual abilities, cognitive style,
adjustment, interests, attitudes, sexual
orientation and preferences,
psychopathology, etc.
o States – distinguish one person from another
but are relatively less enduring
▪ Characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling,
and behaving in a concrete situation at a
specific moment in time
▪ Identify those behaviors that can be
controlled by manipulating the situation
o Psychological Traits exists as construct
▪ Construct – an informed, scientific concept
developed or constructed to explain a
behavior, inferred from overt behavior
▪ Overt Behavior – an observable action or the
product of an observable action
o Trait is not expected to be manifested in behavior
100% of the time
o Whether a trait manifests itself in observable
behavior, and to what degree it manifests, is
presumed to depend not only on the strength of
the trait in the individual but also on the nature of
the action (situation-dependent)
o Context within which behavior occurs also plays
a role in helping us select appropriate trait terms
for observed behaviors
o Definition of trait and state also refer to a way in
which one individual varies from another
o Assessors may make comparisons among
people who, because of their membership in
some group or for any number of other reasons,
are decidedly not average
Assumption 2: Psychological Traits and States can be
Quantified and Measured
o Once the trait, state or other construct has been
defined to be measured, a test developer
consider the types of item content that would
provide insight to it, to gauge the strength of that
trait
o Measuring traits and states means of a test
entails developing not only appropriate tests
items but also appropriate ways to score the test
and interpret the results
o Cumulative Scoring – assumption that the more
the testtaker responds in a particular direction
keyed by the test manual as correct or
consistent with a particular trait, the higher that
testtaker is presumed to be on the targeted
ability or trait
Assumption 3: Test-Related Behavior Predicts Non-
Test-Related Behavior
o The tasks in some tests mimics the actual
behaviors that the test user is attempting to
understand
o Such tests only yield a sample of the behavior
that can be expected to be emitted under nontest
conditions
Assumption 4: Test and Other Measurement
Techniques have strengths and weaknesses
o Competent test users understand and
appreciate the limitations of the test they use as
well as how those limitations might be
compensated for by data from other sources
Assumption 5: Various Sources of Error are part of
the Assessment Process
o Error – refers to something that is more than
expected; it is component of the measurement
process
▪ Refers to a long-standing assumption that
factors other than what a test attempts to
measure will influence performance on the
test
▪ Error Variance – the component of a test
score attributable to sources other than the
trait or ability measured
o Potential Sources of error variance:
1. Assessors
2. Measuring Instruments
3. Random errors such as luck
o Classical Test Theory – each testtaker has true
score on a test that would be obtained but for the
action of measurement error
Assumption 6: Testing and Assessment can be
conducted in a Fair and Unbiased Manner
o Despite best efforts of many professionals,
fairness-related questions and problems do
occasionally rise

Assumptions about Psychological Testing and Assessment
Source: Cohen & Swerdlik (2018), Kaplan & Saccuzzo (2018)
o In al questions about tests with regards to
fairness, it is important to keep in mind that tests
are tools ꟷthey can be used properly or
improperly
Assumption 7: Testing and Assessment Benefit
Society
o Considering the many critical decisions that are
based on testing and assessment procedures,
we can readily appreciate the need for tests
What is a “Good Test”?
o Includes clear instructions for administration,
scoring, and interpretation; offered economy in
the time and money it took to administer, score,
and interpret; and, measures what it purports to
measure
o Reliability – consistency of the measuring tool
▪ The precision with which test measurers and
the extent to which error is present in
measurements
o Validity – measure what it is supposed to
measure
o A good test is one that trained examiners can
administer, score, and interpret with a minimum
difficulty
▪ Yields actionable results that will ultimately
benefit individual testtakers or society at
large
Norms
o Norm-Referenced Testing and Assessment –
method of evaluation and a way of deriving
meaning from test scores by evaluating an
individual testtaker’s score and comparing it to
scores of a group testtakers
▪ Yield information on a testtaker’s standing or
ranking relative to some comparison group of
testtakers
o Norms – usual, average, normal, standard,
expected, or typical
▪ Test performance data of a particular group
of testtakers that are designed for use as a
reference when evaluating or interpreting
individual test scores
o Normative Sample – group of people whose
performance on a particular test is analyzed for
reference in evaluating the performance of
individual testtakers
o Norming – process of deriving norms
o User Norms or Program Norms – consists or
descriptive statistics based on a group of
Psychological Assessment
testtakers in a given period of time rather than
norms obtained by formal sampling methods
o Standardization – the process of administering a
test to a representative sample of testtakers for
the purpose of establishing norms
o Sample – a portion of the universe of people that
represents the whole population
o Sampling – process of selecting sample
Probability Sampling
Random sampling, randomization is used to
select samples
Simple Random Sampling
Every element in the population has an equal
chance of being selected as part of the sample
Easy, cheap, remove all risk of bias
Systematic Sampling
Every nth item or person after is picked
Researcher can choose the interval at which
items are picked
Stratified Sampling
Random selection within predefined groups
More risk of bias due to stratifying
Cluster Sampling
Groups rather than individual units of the target
population are selected randomly
Non-Probability Sampling
Researchers pick items or individual based on
their research goals or knowledge
Convenience Sampling
Selected based on their availability
Quota Sampling
Achieve a spread across the target population by
specifying who should be recruited for a survey
according to certain groups or criteria
Purposive Sampling
Chosen consciously based on their knowledge
and understanding of the research question at
hand or their goals
Snowball or Referral Sampling
People recruited to be part of a sample are asked
to invite those they know to take part, who are then
asked to invite their friends and family and so on
Helpful when the researcher doesn’t know very
much about the target population and has no easy
way to contact or access them
o After obtaining sample for standardization, the
test developer will administer the test according
to the standard set of instructions that will be
 Psychological Assessment
Assumptions about Psychological Testing and Assessment
Source: Cohen & Swerdlik (2018), Kaplan & Saccuzzo (2018)
used with the test and also describe the
recommended setting for giving the test
o Percentile – an expression of the percentage of
people whose score on a test or measure falls
before a particular raw score
▪ Percentage Correct – refers to the
distribution of raw scores, specifically, to the
number of items that were answered
correctly multiplied by 100 and divided by the
total number of items
o Age Norms – average performance of different
samples of testtakers who were at various ages
at the time the test was administered
o Grade Norms – developed by administering the
test to representative samples of children over a
range of consecutive grade levels
▪ Developmental Norms – norms developed on
the basis of any trait, ability, skill, or other
characteristics that is presumed to develop,
deteriorate, or otherwise affected by
chronological age, school grade, or stage of
life
o National Norms – derived from a normative
sample that was nationally representative of the
population at the time norming study was
conducted
o Local Norms – provide normative information
with respect to the local population’s
performance on some test
o Fixed Reference Group Scoring System – the
distribution of scores obtained on the test from
one group of testtakers (fixed reference group)
is used as the basis for the calculation of test
scores for future administrations of the test
o Criterion-Referenced Tests and Assessment –
method of evaluation and a way of deriving
meaning from test scores by evaluating an
individual’s score with reference to a set
standard (criterion)
o Domain- or Content-Referenced Testing and
Assessment – how scores relate to a particular
content area or domain
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