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Testing

Psychological tests aim to measure people's true scores on attributes like intelligence and personality. There are two principal types of tests: mental ability tests that measure intelligence and aptitude, and personality scales that measure motives, interests, values, and attitudes. Test developers aim to minimize measurement error and establish a test's reliability through standardization, internal consistency, and test-retest methods. Validity is also important and can be assessed through content, criterion-related, and construct validity to ensure a test is measuring what it intends to measure.

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37 views15 pages

Testing

Psychological tests aim to measure people's true scores on attributes like intelligence and personality. There are two principal types of tests: mental ability tests that measure intelligence and aptitude, and personality scales that measure motives, interests, values, and attitudes. Test developers aim to minimize measurement error and establish a test's reliability through standardization, internal consistency, and test-retest methods. Validity is also important and can be assessed through content, criterion-related, and construct validity to ensure a test is measuring what it intends to measure.

Uploaded by

jonalyn Legaspi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Psychological Testing

Principle Types of Psychological Tests


 Mental ability tests
 Intelligence – general
 Aptitude – specific

 Personality scales
 Measure motives, interests, values, and attitudes
Key Concepts in Psychological Testing
 Standardization
 Test norms
 Standardization group
 Reliability
 Correlation coefficient
 Validity
 Content validity
 Criterion-related validity
 Construct validity
Classical Test Theory
 Goal of testing is to identify subject’s “true
score” on a given attribute.

Classical Test Theory says…

Test Score = True Score + Error of Measurement

Goal of test developers


is to minimize this!
Sources of Measurement Error
 Where do these measurement errors come from?

 Item sampling error

 Internal consistency error

 Time sampling error

 Random error
 Testing
 How do psychologists know how well their
test is measuring a person’s true score?
 By assessing test reliability Assesses
Time sampling error
Test-Retest reliability
Alternate or Parallel Form reliability

Internal Consistency reliability


Assesses
Assesses
Item sampling error
Internal consistency error
Test-Retest Reliability
Judging Internal Consistency
Correlation Matrix

Q9 Q10 Q17 Q18

Q9 1.0000
Q10 .1829 1.0000
Q17 .1888 .5718 1.0000
Q18 .1730 .4031 .5302 1.0000

Scale Scale Corrected


Mean Variance Item- Squared Alpha
if Item if Item Total Multiple if Item
Deleted Deleted Correlation Correlation Deleted
Anxiety Scale Items
Q9 I 8.9250
am carefree 8.4753 .2220 .0494 .7513
Q10 I overcome 9.
am rarely9.4750 I am
with carefree
6.2272
worries .5460 .3452 .5655
Q17 I am not a 9.2875
worrier 5.3720 .6160 .4367 .5080
Q18 I 9.1750
rarely feel
10. I am rarely
6.8804
fearful or anxious
overcome
.5141
with worries
.2999 .5930
17. I am not a worrier
18. I rarely feel fearful or anxious
Reliability Coefficients 4 items

Alpha = .6846 Standardized item alpha = .6749


 Testing
 How do psychologists know their test is
measuring what they think it is measuring?

 By assessing test validity


 Content validity
 Criterion-related validity
 Construct validity
Fig. 9-4, p. 339
Fig. 9-5, p. 340
Assessing Construct Validity

Convergent Construct Validity


Divergent Construct Validity
Correlations
Our measure of extraversion Correlations
HEIGHT SHOE EXTRA202
should not
be HEIGHT
correlated
be correlated withwith 1.000
NEOEXTRA .843** -.066
CLASSEXTRA
NEO
SHOEExtraversion Scale .843** 1.0001.000 .477**
.011
things unrelated
related to extraversion
to extraversion
Class
ClassExtraversion
ExtraversionScale
Scale -.066 .477**.011 1.000
1.000
**.
**.Correlation
Correlationisissignificant
significantatatthe
the0.01
0.01level
level(2-tailed).
(2-tailed).
Assessing Construct Validity

Convergent ConstructValidity
Divergent Construct Validity

Correlations
Correlations
Our measure of impatience HEIGHT ‘02 SHOE EXTRA202
‘03
should not
beImpatience
correlated
be correlated
HEIGHT with
Scale ‘02 with 1.000 1.000 .857** -.085
.275*
SHOEto impatience.
things unrelated
related
ImpatiencetoScale
impatience.
‘03 .857** .275*1.000 .039
1.000
Impatience Scale -.085level (2-tailed).
.039 1.000
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05
**.
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
 Testing
 Utility of Psychological Tests
 Reliability
 Alternate or Parallel Form
 Internal Consistency
 Test-Retest
 Validity
 Content
 Criterion-Related
 Construct

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