General Types of

Psychological Tests According

to Variable Measured
Ability Tests

 - Assess what a person can do

 - Includes Intelligence Tests, Achievement Tests and Aptitude Tests
 - Best conditions are provided to elicit a person’s full capacity or
maximum performance
 - There are right and wrong answers
 - Objective of motivation: for the examinee to do his best
Tests of Typical Performance

 - Assess what a person usually does

 - Includes personality tests, interest/attitude/values inventories
 - Typical performance can still manifest itself even in conditions not deemed
as best
 - There are no right or wrong answers
 - Objective of motivation: for the examinee to answer questions honestly
Specific Types of Psychological Tests

 Intelligence Test
– measures general potential
 – Assumption: fewer assumptions about specific prior
learning experiences
– Validation process: Content Validity and Construct Validity
 – examples: WAIS, WISC, CFIT, RPM
Aptitude Test

– Measures an individual’s potential for learning a specific task,

ability or skill
– Assumption: No assumptions about specific prior learning
experiences
– Validation process: Content validity and Predictive Validity
– Examples: DAT, SATT
Achievement Test

 – This test provides a measure for the amount, rate and level of learning,
success or accomplishment, strengths/weaknesses in a particular subject or
task
 – Assumption: Assumes prior relatively standardized educational learning
experiences
 – Validation process: Content validity
 – Example: National Achievement Test
Personality Test

 – measures traits, qualities, attitudes or behaviors that determine a person’s

individuality
 – can measure overt or covert dispositions and levels of adjustment as well
 – can be measured idiographically (unique characteristics) or
nomothetically (common characteristics

 – has three construction strategies namely: theory-guided
inventories, factor-analytically derived inventories, criterion-keyed
inventories
 – examples: NEOPI, 16PF, MBTI, MMPI
Interest Inventory

 – Measures an individual’s performance for certain activities or topics and

thereby help determine occupational choice or make career decisions
 – Measure the direction and strength of interest
 – Assumption: Interests though unstable, have a certain stability or else it cannot
be measured
 – Stability is said to start at 17 years old
 – Broad lines of interests are more stable while specific lines of interests are more
unstable, they can change a lot.
 – Example: CII
Attitude Inventory

 – Direct observation on how a person behaves in relation to certain things

 – Attitude questionnaires or scales (Bogardus Social Distance Scale, 1925)
 – Reliabilities are good but not as high as those of tests of ability
 – Attitude measures have not generally correlated very highly with actual
behavior – Specific behaviors, however, can be predicted from measures of
attitude toward the specific behavior
Values Inventory

 – Purports to measure generalized and dominant interests

 – Validity is extremely difficult to determine by statistical methods
 – The only observable criterion is overt behavior
 – Employed less frequently than interest in vocational counseling and career
decision-making
Diagnostic Test

– This test can uncover and focus attention on weaknesses

of individuals for remedial purposes
Power Test

 – Requires an examinee to exhibit the extent or depth of his

understanding or skill
 – Test with varying level of difficulty
Speed Test

 – Requires the examinee to complete as many items as possible

 – Contains items of uniform and generally simple level of difficulty
Creativity Test

 – A test which assesses an individual’s ability to produce new/original ideas,

insights or artistic creations that are accepted as being social, aesthetic or
scientific value
 – Can assess the person’s capacity to find unusual or unexpected solutions for
vaguely defined problems
Neuropsychological Test

 – Measures cognitive, sensory, perceptual and motor performance to

determine the extent, locus and behavioral consequences of brain damage,
given to persons with known or suspected brain dysfunction
 – Example: Bender-Gestalt II
Objective Test

 – Standardized test
 – Administered individually or in groups
 – Objectively scored
 – There are limited number of responses
 – Uses norms
 – There is a high level of reliability and validity
 – Examples: Personality Inventories, Group Intelligence Test
Projective Test

 – Test with ambiguous stimuli which measures wishes, intrapsychic

conflicts, dreams and unconscious motives
 – Projective tests allow the examinee to respond to vague stimuli with
their own impressions
 – Assumption is that the examinee will project his unconscious needs,
motives, and conflicts onto the neutral stimulus
 – Administered individually and scored subjectively
 – Have 5 types/techniques: Completion Technique, Expressive
Technique, Association Technique, Construction Technique, Choice or
Ordering Technique
 – With low levels of reliability and validity – Examples: Rorschach
Inkblot Test, TAT, HTP, SSCT, DAP
Norm-Referenced Test

– raw scores are converted to standard scores

Criterion-Referenced Test

– raw scores are referenced to specific cut-off

scores
Basic Principles in the Use of Psychological
Tests
 1. Tests are samples of behavior
 2. Tests do not reveal traits or capacities directly
 3. Psychological maladjustments selectively and differentially affect the test
scores
 4. The psychometric and projective approaches, although indistinguishable,
are mutually complementary
Psychological Tests are used in the following
settings:

Educational Settings
– Basis for admission and placement to an academic
institution
– Identify developmental problems or exceptionalities
for which a student may need special assistance
– Assist students for educational od vocational planning
 – Intelligence tests and achievement tests are used from an early age. From
kindergarten on, tests are used for placement and advancement.
 – Educational institutions have to make admissions and advancement
decisions regarding students. e.g, SAT, GRE, subject placement tests
 – Used to assess students for special education programs. Also, used in
diagnosing learning difficulties.
Clinical Settings
 – Tests of Psychological Adjustment and tests which can classify and/or
diagnose patients are used extensively.
 – Psychologist generally use a number of objective and projective
personality tests.
 – Neuropsychological tests which examine basic mental function also fall
into this category. Perceptual tests are used detecting and diagnosing
brain damage.
 – For diagnosis and treatment planning
Counseling Settings
 – Counseling in schools, prisons, government or private institutions
Geriatric Settings
 – Assessment for the aged
Business Settings (Personnel Testing)
 – Tests are used to assess: training needs, worker’s performance in training,
success in training programs, management development, leadership training,
and selection.
 – For example, the Myers -Briggs type indicator is used extensively to assess
managerial potential. Type testing is used to hopefully match the right person
with the job they are most suited for.
 – Selection of employees’ classification of individuals to positions suited for
them – Basis for promotion
Military Settings
 – For proper selection of military recruits and placement in the
military duties
Government and Organizational Credentialing
 – For promotional purposes, licensing, certification or general
credentialing of professionals
Courts
 – Evaluate the mental health of people charged with a crime
 – Investigating malingering cases in courts
 – Making child custody/annulment/divorce decisions
 Academic Research Settings
Uses of Psychological Test

1. Classification
 – assigning a person to one category rather than the other a. Placement
 – refers to sorting of persons into different programs appropriate to their
needs/skills (example: a university mathematics placement exam is given to
students to determine if they should enroll in calculus, in algebra or in a
remedial course) b. Screening
 – refers to quick and simple tests/procedures to identify persons who might
have special characteristics or needs (example: identifying children with
exceptional thinking and the top 10% will be singled out for a more
comprehensive testing) c. Certification
 – determining whether a person has at least the minimum proficiency in
some discipline/activity (example: right to practice medicine after
passing the medical board exam; right to drive a car) d. Selection
 – example: provision of an opportunity to attend a university;
opportunity to gain employment in a company or in a government
Aptitude Testing
 a. Low selection ratio
 b. Low success ratio
3. Diagnosis and Treatment Planning
 – diagnosis conveys information about strengths, weaknesses, etiology
and best choices for treatment (example: IQ tests are absolutely essential
in diagnosing intellectual disability)
Self-Knowledge
 – psychological tests also supply a potent source of self-knowledge
and in some cases, the feedback a person receives from
psychological tests is so self-affirming that it can change the entire
course of a person’s life.
Program Evaluation
– another use of psychological tests is the systematic evaluation of educational
and social programs (they are designed to provide services which improve social
conditions and community life)
 a. Diagnostic Evaluation – refers to evaluation conducted before instruction.
 b. Formative Evaluation – refers to evaluation conducted during or after
instruction.
 c. Summative Evaluation – refers to evaluation conducted at the end of a unit
or a specified period of time.
Research – psychological tests also play a major role in both the
applied and the theoretical branches of behavioral researches
Steps in (Clinical) Psychological Assessment

 1. Deciding what is being assessed

 2. Determining the goals of assessment
 3. Selecting standards for making decisions
 4. Collecting assessment data
 5. Making decisions and judgments
 6. Communicating results
Approaches in Psychological Assessment

 1. Nomothetic Approach - characterized by efforts to learn how a limited

number of personality traits can be applied to all people
 2. Idiographic Approach - characterized by efforts to learn about each
individual’s unique constellation of personality traits, with no attempt to
characterize each person according to any particular set of traits
Making Inferences and Decisions in
Psychological Testing and Assessment
 1. Base Rate - An index, usually expressed as a proportion, of the extent to
which a particular trait, behavior, characteristic, or attribute exists in a
population
 2. Hit Rate - The proportion of people a test or other measurement procedure
accurately identifies as possessing or exhibiting a particular trait, behavior,
characteristic, or attribute
 3. Miss Rate - The proportion of people a test or other measurement procedure
fails to identify accurately with respect to the possession or exhibition of a trait,
behavior, characteristic, or attribute; a "miss" in this context is an inaccurate
classification or prediction and can be classified as:
 a. False Positive (Type I error) - an inaccurate prediction or
classification indicating that a testtaker did possess a trait or other
attribute being measured when in reality the testtaker did not
 b. False Negative (Type II error) - an inaccurate prediction of
classification indicating that a testtaker did not possess a trait or
other attribute being measured when in reality the testtaker did
Cross-Cultural Testing

1. Parameters where cultures vary

 – Language
 – Test Content
 – Education
 – Speed (Tempo of Life)
2. Culture Free Tests
 – An attempt to eliminate culture so nature can be isolated
 – Impossible to develop such because culture is evident in its
influence since birth or an individual
 – The interaction between nature and nurture is cumulative and not
relative
Culture Fair Tests
 – These tests were developed because of the non-success of culture-free
tests – Nurture is not removed but parameters are common an fair to all
 – Can be done using three approaches such as follows:
 ✓ Fair to all cultures
 ✓ Fair to some cultures
 ✓ Fair only to one culture
4. Culture Loadings
 – The extent to which a test incorporates the vocabulary, concepts,
traditions, knowledge, and feelings, associated with culture
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