Week 1

Question 1

Tests

Answer 1

Test: a measurement device or technique used to quantify behavior or aid in the understanding and prediction of behavior

Tests in the modern world - a large part of everyone’s life and success depends on test results

Tests are about INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
—Find a way to quantify/categorize those individual differences
—In some ways the opposite of much experimental psychology

Question 2

types of tests

Answer 2

Intelligence tests - how do you define what intelligence is and how do you make a test for it

Aptitude tests - for dental school- want to know that they are good with their hands - physical skills, how to you determine what pilot is the least likely to die
—-Things youre good at

Achievement tests - depends on you knowing some stuff - driving tests

Creativity tests

Personality tests

Interest inventories - career stuff - what do you like - inside/outside, people etc.

Behavioral procedures - test impulse control - how long can you stand still

Neuropsychological tests

Question 3

Uses for Tests
CSPR

Answer 3

1. Classification -
   —-placement, screening, certification - different categories
   —-Diagnosis and treatment planning
2. Self-knowledge
   —Facebook quizzes - which character are you
3. Program evaluation
   —Is this program managing students who are qualified
   —-Not interested in individuals but looking at the overall
4. Research
   —Fundamental constructs - what does personality mean
   —Testing these things also defining the concepts themselves
   —Used to make judgments, predictions and decisions about people
   —Test for health at birth - need to know about psychometrics to use this info

Question 4

Item:

Answer 4

Item: a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly - response can be scored or evaluated ex. classified, graded on a scale, or counted.

Psychological and educational tests are made up of items - data produced are explicit and hence subject to scientific inquiry

Items are the specific questions or problems that make up a test.

Question 5

overt and covert behavior

Answer 5

Overt behavior - individual’s observable activity

Ex. measure the extent to which someone might engage in or “emit” a particular overt behavior
Or measure how much a person has previously engaged in some overt behavior

Covert Behavior - takes place within an individual and cannot be directly observed - feelings and thoughts

Question 6

Psychological test:

Answer 6

Psychological test: or educational test is a set of items that are designed to measure characteristics of human beings that pertain to behavior

The main use of these tests is to evaluate individual differences or variations among individuals

Psyched tests measure past or current behavior and some attempt to predict future behavior

Question 7

Scores on tests may be related to:

Answer 7

Traits - enduring characteristics or tendencies to respond in a certain manner

States - specific condition or status of an individual

Question 8

Scores and Context

Answer 8

A score can only be analyzed within a specific context

• need to look at the distribution to interpret a score

Scales - relate raw scores on test items to some defined theoretical or empirical distribution

Question 9

indvidual and group tests

Answer 9

Individual test - only given to one person at a time

Test administrator - person giving the test

Group test - can be administered to more than one person at a time

Question 10

Achievement

Answer 10

Achievement: previous learning

Test that measures or evaluates how many words you can spell correctly is called a spelling achievement test

How well have you learned something

Question 11

Aptitude

Answer 11

Aptitude: potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill

Spelling aptitude: how many words you might be able to spell given a certain amount of training, education and experience

Ability to go and do something

Question 12

Intelligence:

Answer 12

Intelligence: general potential to solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances, think abstractly and profit from experience

When a father scolds his daughter because she has not done as well in school as she can, he most likely believes that she has not used her intelligence (general potential) to achieve (acquire new knowledge).

Whats your ability to deal with the world - best aptitude test

Question 13

All three concepts are encompassed - achievement, aptitude and intelligence

Answer 13

by the term human ability

Question 14

Distinction between ability tests and personality tests

Answer 14

Ability tests - related to capacity or potential

Personality tests - related to the overt and covert dispositions of the individual - tendency of a person to show a particular behavior or response in a given situation - Measures typical behavior

Question 15

types of personality tests

Answer 15

Structured personality tests - provide a statement usually of the “self-report” variety and require the subject to choose between two or more alternative responses such as true or false

Projective personality tests - either the stimulus (test materials) or the required response or both are ambiguous
Rorschach test - provide a spontaneous response

Question 16

what do psychological tests measure?

Answer 16

Such tests measure individual differences in ability and personality and assume that the differences shown on the test reflect actual differences among individuals.

For instance, individuals who score high on an IQ test are assumed to have a higher degree of intelligence than those who obtain low scores.

The most important purpose of testing is to differentiate among those taking the tests.

Question 17

Principles of Psychological Testing

Answer 17

Reliability: accuracy, dependability, consistency, or repeatability of test results

Validity: meaning and usefulness of test results.
validity refers to the degree to which a certain inference or interpretation based on a test is appropriate

Question 18

Applications of Psychological Testing

Answer 18

Interview is a method of gathering information through verbal interaction, such as direct questions

Important complement to test results

Question 19

Issues of Psychological Testing

Answer 19

Racial differences in ability, bias related to legal issues and the law

Question 20

History of Testing

Answer 20

Closely tied with the history of psychology (esp. in America).

Increased interest in individual differences in 19th and early 20th century

Darwin (then Galton, then Cattell) Universal schooling

Question 21

Historical Perspective
Early Antecedents - chinese origins

Answer 21

Origins of testing - Chinese had a relatively sophisticated civil service testing program more than 4000 yrs ago - set up standardized testing for this

Han Dynasty - 206 -220 BCE - test batteries (two or more tests used in conjunction)

Early test topics - civil law, military affairs, agriculture, revenue and geography.

Question 22

Ming Dynasty

Answer 22

tests well developed - national multistage testing program involved local and regional testing centres with special booths

Did well at local level - went to provincial capitals for more extensive essay exams

Passed 3rd set of tests were eligible for public office

Question 23

historical - western

Answer 23

e Western world most likely learned about testing programs through the Chinese. Reports by British missionaries and diplomats encouraged the English East India Company in 1832 to copy the Chinese system as a method of selecting
employees for overseas duty

British gov adopted a similar system of testing for its civil service in 1855

French and german govs followed

1883 - US gov established American Civil Service Commission

Developed and administered competitive examinations for certain gov jobs

Radical idea to take a test to do a job - in past do the job that your parent did

Question 24

Charles Darwin and Individual Differences

Answer 24

Darwin: Non-human animals - why are some more fit than others

Difficult to develop tools for measuring differences between people

The Origin of Species 1859 - higher forms of life evolved partially because of differences among individual forms of life within a species

Given that individual members differ - some possess characteristics that are more adaptive or successful in a given environment than are those of other members

Those with the most adaptive characteristics survive at the expense of those who are less fit and that the survivors pass their characteristics onto the next generation

Question 25

Galton

Answer 25

some people possessed characteristics that made them more fit than others Classic Book - Classification of man according to their gifts Take darwins ideas and see if they can be applied to people Individual and physical differences between people Tall, heavy, grip strength etc Experimental studies to document the validity of his position Concentrated on demonstrating that individual differences exist in human sensory and motor functioning Initiated a search for knowledge concerning human individual differences

Question 26

Cattell

Answer 26

Starting moving this into psychological testing -Mental test - individual differences in reaction time - ultimately led to the development of modern tests. Set up a lab at the University of Pennsylvania 1888 10 mental tests (standardized testing) Dynamometer Pressure; Rate of Movement (time to move an arm a specified distance); Sensation-Areas (two-point discrimination); Least Noticeable Difference in Weight; Reaction Time for Sound; Time for Naming Colors; Bi-section of a 50-cm. Line; Judgment of Ten Seconds Time; Number of Letters Remembered on Once Hearing

Question 27

Hebart

Answer 27

Before psychology was practiced as a science, mathematical models of the mind were developed, in particular those of J. E. Herbart. Herbart eventually used these models as the basis for educational theories that strongly influenced 19th-century educational practices. UNIVERSAL SCHOOLING - want to be able to identify those with talent Anti-elitist forces - have gifts recognized

Question 28

Weber

Answer 28

attempted to demonstrate the existence of a psychological threshold - the minimum stimulus necessary to activate a sensory system Devised law - strength of a sensation grows as the logarithm of the stimulus intensity

Question 29

Wundt

Answer 29

credited with founding the science of psychology

Question 30

psychological testing developed from at least two lines of inquiry:

Answer 30

1. one based on the work of Darwin, Galton, and Cattell on the measurement of individual differences 2. the other (more theoretically relevant and probably stronger) based on the work of the German psychophysicists Herbart, Weber, Fechner, and Wundt. Experimental psychology developed from the latter - the idea that testing, like an experiment, requires rigorous experimental control. Such control - comes from administering tests under highly standardized conditions Such tests also arose in response to important needs such as classifying and identifying the mentally and emotionally handicapped.

Question 31

20th century - French minister of public instruction

Answer 31

French minister of public instruction appointed a commission to study ways of identifying intellectually subnormal individuals in order to provide them with appropriate educational experiences Binet - first major general intelligence test - launched the first systematic attempt to evaluate individual differences in human intelligence

Question 32

Binet - Simon Scale - published in 1905

Answer 32

Contained 30 items of increasing difficulty and was designed to identify intellectually subnormal individuals Response to universal schooling - how can we identify individuals who were delayed Identify and well-below-average intelligence - but the idea shifts easily into the possibility for individual potential

Question 33

the importance of obtaining a standardization sample that represents the population for which a test will be used has sometimes been ignored or overlooked by test users.

Answer 33

if a standardization sample consists of 50 white men from wealthy families, then one cannot easily or fairly evaluate the score of an African American girl from a poverty-stricken family. Nevertheless, comparisons of this kind are sometimes made. Clearly, it is not appropriate to compare an individual with a group that does not have the same characteristics as the individual. representative sample is one that comprises individuals similar to those for whom the test is to be used.

Question 34

Standardization (new concept introduced)

Answer 34

sample consisted of 50 children who had been given the test under standard conditions—that is, with precisely the same instructions and format. In obtaining this standardization sample - norms with which they could compare the results from any new subject. Without such norms, the meaning of scores would have been difficult, if not impossible, to evaluate. Mental age compared to real age

Question 35

Upper mobility

Answer 35

identify this talent regardless of where it is coming from Surprise that girls performed as well as boys Accepted once they saw the data

Question 36

Group Testing WW1

Answer 36

Group tests - scope broadened include tests of achievement, aptitude, interest, and personality. Because achievement, aptitude, and intelligence tests overlapped considerably distinctions proved to be more illusory than real

Question 37

World War One: Yerkes - Army Alpha and the Army Beta what did each measure?

Answer 37

testing movement grew enormously in the United States because of the demand for a quick efficient way of evaluating the emotional and intellectual functioning of thousands of military recruits in World War I. Binet test was an individual test - needed group Yerkes - Army Alpha and the Army Beta The Army Alpha required reading ability, whereas the Army Beta measured the intelligence of illiterate adults

Question 38

Achievement Tests advantages

Answer 38

MC Q that are standardized on a large sample to produce norms to compare results Ease of administration and scoring, lack of subjectivity or favouritism compared to written tests, broader coverage of content, less expensive, more efficient In schools - maintained identical testing conditions and scoring standards for a large number of children 1930s - the objectivity and reliability of these new standardized tests made the superior to essay tests Today - many people favor written tests - reduces marginalization of minority children

Question 39

Critics of testing movement

Answer 39

Accuracy and utility remained under heavy fire End of 1930s - reestablish the respectability of tests Revised stanford binet - 3000 standardization sample Criticized bc of emphasis on language and verbal skills/reading Few people believe that language or verbal skills play an exclusive role in human intelligence Eventually revised 86 to include performance subtests Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (SB single score) - multipl scores - analyze individual’s pattern or combination of abilities Performance IQ - performance tests no verbal response

Question 40

Personality tests

Answer 40

Measured presumably stable characteristics or traits that theoretically underlie behavior Traits: relatively enduring dispositions (tendencies to act, think or feel in a certain manner in any given circumstance) that distinguish one individual from another Ex. Optimism vs. pessimism

Question 41

earliest personality tests

Answer 41

Earliest - structured paper and pencil group tests MC and TF, high degree of structure - responses can be scored - structured personality test 1st structured p test: Woodworth Personal Data Sheet - WW1 - simple by todays standards Motivation to develop was to screen military recruits Interpretation depended on the now-discredited assumption that the content of an item could be accepted at face value Dishonesty and different interpretation from the administrator were problems

Question 42

Criticism of structured tests

Answer 42

Criticism of structured tests that relied on face value alone - nearly driven out of existence

Question 43

Following WW2 -SPT

Answer 43

personality tests based on fewer or different assumptions were introduced - rescuing the structured personality test STRUCTURED - unambiguous test stim and specific alternative responses Do you like to be at the centre of attention Interest in PROJECTIVE tests grew - have not withstood a vigorous examination of their psychometric properties- ambiguous stimulus and unclear response requirements - subjective scoring - Rorschach (under a dark cloud today) THEMATIC Apperception Test by Murray and Morgan More structured Ambiguous pictures depicting a variety of scenes and situations - boy sitting in front of a table with a violin on it Required subject to make up a story about the scene

Question 44

In 1943, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Answer 44

—to use empirical methods to determine the meaning of a test response—helped revolutionize structured personality tests Authors argued that the meaning of a test response could be determined only by empirical research Currently the most widely used and referenced personality test

Question 45

Problem with early personality tests - Woodworth

Answer 45

made far too many assumptions that subsequent scientific investigations failed to substantiate

Question 46

Factor Analysis

Answer 46

finding the minimum number of dimensions (characteristics, attributes), called factors, to account for a large number of variables Guilford - attempt to use factor analytic techniques in the development of a structured personality test Cattell - 16-factor personality questionnaire - declining popularity but one of the most well-constructed structured personality tests and an important example of a test developed with factor analysis Factor analysis today is a tool used in the design or validation of just about all major tests

Question 47

Woodworth Personal Data Sheet:

Answer 47

: An early structured personality test that assumed that a test response can be taken at face value. first structured personality test

Question 48

The Rorschach Inkblot Test:

Answer 48

A highly controversial projective test that provided an ambiguous stimulus (an inkblot) and asked the subject what it might be

Question 49

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):

Answer 49

A projective test that provided ambiguous pictures and asked subjects to make up a story

Question 50

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI):

Answer 50

A structured personality test that made no assumptions about the meaning of a test response. Such meaning was to be determined by empirical research

Question 51

The California Psychological Inventory (CPI):

Answer 51

A structured personality test developed according to the same principles as the MMPI.

Question 52

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF):

Answer 52

A structured personality test based on the statistical procedure of factor analysis

Question 53

one of the things that cemented psychology as a profession

Answer 53

Testing was one of the things that cemented psychology as a profession Second half of the 20th century, a lot of public suspicions about standardized testing grew

Question 54

1940s

Answer 54

emergence of a whole new technology in psychological testing but also the growth of applied aspects of psychology WW2 - gov encourage development of applied psychological technology

Question 55

1949

Answer 55

formal university training standards developed and accepted - clinical psychology born - other branches soon expanded

Question 56

40-50s - One of major functions of applied psychologist

Answer 56

40-50s - One of major functions of applied psychologist was providing psychological testing APA psych could not conduct psychotherapy independently Post WW2 psychologists rejected the secondary role to physicians

Question 57

50-70s

Answer 57

Testing in a sharp decline from 50-70

Question 58

The Current Environment

Answer 58

1980s+ branches of applied psychology emerged and flourished - neuropsychology, health psychology, forensic and child

Question 59

Bad testing

Answer 59

Phrenology Bump on specific spot in brain leads to specific issue Astrology Scorpio - i know what youre like Rorschach Open to interpretation Does not work - not valid or reliable Interview Judge of character

Question 60

what was the major function of the clinical psychologist in the late 1940s- early 1950s

Answer 60

testing

Question 61

rejecting secondary role to physicians

Answer 61

Further, because many psychologists associated tests with this secondary relationship, they rejected testing At the same time, the potentially intrusive nature of tests and fears of misuse began to create public suspicion, distrust, and contempt for tests. Attacks on testing came from within and without the profession

Question 62

Seguin Form Board Test

Answer 62

effort to educate and evaluate the mentally disabled.