Psychological Tests

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What are psychological tests?
Psychological tests are standard measures
devised to assess overt (observable) and
covert (e.g., feelings, attitude) behavior
objectively.

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Characteristics of psychological tests:
• Provide a sample of behaviour.
• Measure past or present behaviour, or predict
future behaviour.
• Performance may be related to
– traits or enduring tendencies
– or the state of an individual

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Why do psychologists use
psychological tests?
• To help people better understand themselves
• To help people to make decisions about their
lives

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Essential characteristics of
psychological tests:
1. Reliability
2. Validity
3. Norm

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Reliability
• Reliability refers to a test’s measurement
consistency.
• If a test is reliable, it yields the same result
each time it is administered to a specific
person or group.

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Validity
Tests have validity when they actually
measure what they are designed to measure.

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Norm
Norm is the average test performance of a large
sample of individuals that permit the comparison
of one person’s score on a test with the scores of
others who have taken the same test.

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Standardization
• Test norms.
• The behavior sample is obtained under
standardized conditions.
• Each individual taking a psychological or
educational test should be tested under
essentially identical conditions.
• Set of rules or procedure for scoring responses
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Three general categories of tests:
1. Tests in which the subject performs a task (e.g.
mental ability tests).
2. Tests that involve observations of the subject’s
behavior within a particular context.
3. Self-report measures (e.g. personality scales)

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The ethics of research and psychological
testing
Safeguards for participants:
• Protection of participants from physical and
mental harm.
• The right of participants to privacy regarding their
behavior.
• The assurance that participation in research is
completely voluntary.
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• The necessity of informing participants about the
nature of procedures before their participation in
the experiment.
• All experiments must be reviewed by an
independent panel before being conducted.

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Informed consent
A document signed by participants affirming
that they have been told the basic outlines of
the study and are aware of what their
participation will involve.

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Debriefing
- Restate purpose of the research/testing.
- Explain how the results will be used.
- Reiterate that findings will be treated
confidentially.
- Answer all of the respondents questions fully.
- Thank the participant!

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