Wk 1: Chapter 1. Introduction Flashcards
What is a test?
A test is a measurement device or technique used to quantify behavior or aid in the understanding and prediction of behavior.
What is an item?
An item is a **specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly; **this response can be scored or evaluated (e.g., classified, graded on a scale, or counted).
Because psychological and educational tests are made up of items, the data they produce are explicit and hence subject to scientific inquiry.
In simple terms, items are the **specific questions or problems that make up a test. **
What is a psychological test?
A psychological test or educational test is a set of items that are designed to measure characteristics of human beings that pertain to behavior.
Describe types of behaviour and give examples
There are many types of behavior.
Overt behavior is an individual’s observable activity. Some psychological tests attempt to measure the extent to which someone might engage in or “emit” a particular overt behavior.
Other tests measure how much a person has previously engaged in some overt behavior.
Behavior can also be covert—that is, it takes place within an individual and cannot be directly observed. For example, your feelings and thoughts are types of covert behavior. Some tests attempt to measure such behavior. Psychological and educational tests thus measure past or current behavior. Some also attempt to predict future behavior, such as success in college or in an advanced degree program.
What can a test score show? Give example
Scores on tests may be related to traits, which are enduring characteristics or tendencies to respond in a certain manner.
“Determination,” sometimes seen as “stubbornness,” is an example of a trait; “shyness” is another.
Test scores may also be related to the state, or the specific condition or status, of an individual. A determined individual after many setbacks may, for instance, be in a weakened state and therefore be less inclined than usual to manifest determination. Tests measure many types of behavior.
Describe types of tests
Types of Tests
Just as there are many types of behavior, so there are many types of tests.
Those that can be given to only one person at a time are known as individual tests (see Figure 1.3). The examiner or test administrator (the person giving the test) gives the test to only one per-son at a time, the same way that psychotherapists see only one person at a time.
A group test, by contrast, can be administered to more than one person at a time by a single examin-er, such as when an instructor gives everyone in the class a test at the same time.
Define ‘ability test’ and give examples
One can also categorize tests according to the type of behavior they measure.
**Ability tests **contain items that can be scored in terms of speed, accuracy, or both. On an ability test, the faster or the more accurate your responses, the better your scores on a particular characteristic.
The more algebra problems you can correctly solve in a given amount of time, the higher you score in ability to solve such problems.
Distinguish between ‘achievement, aptitude, and intelligence’ and give e
Historically, experts have distinguished among achievement, aptitude, and intelligence as different types of ability.
Achievement refers to previous learning. A test that measures or evaluates how many words you can spell correctly is called a spelling achievement test.
Aptitude, by contrast, refers to the potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill. A spelling aptitude test measures how many words you might be able to spell given a certain amount of training, education, and experience. Your musical aptitude refers in part to how well you might be able to learn to play a musical instrument given a certain number of lessons. Traditionally distinguished from achievement and aptitude…
Intelligence refers to a person’s general potential to solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances, think abstractly, and profit from experience. When we say a person is “smart,” we are usually referring to intelligence. 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).
Discuss interrelation between achievement, aptitude, and intelligence…
The distinctions among achievement, aptitude, and intelligence are not always so cut-and-dried because all three are highly interrelated.
Attempts to separate prior learning from potential for learning, for example, have not succeeded. In view of the considerable overlap of achievement, aptitude, and intelligence tests, all three concepts are encompassed by the term human ability.
What is the difference between ability and personality tests? Give examp
There is a clear-cut distinction between **ability tests and personality tests. **
Whereas ability tests are related to capacity or potential, personality tests are related to the overt and covert dispositions of the individual
EXAMPLE, the tendency of a person to show a particular behavior or response in a given situation. Remaining isolated from others, for instance, does not require any special skill or ability, but some people typically prefer or tend to remain thus isolated.
Personality tests measure typical behavior.
Describe types of personality tests… (Give examples)
There are several types of personality tests. In Chapter 13, you will learn about structured, or objective, personality tests.
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” (see Figure 1.4).
In contrast to structured personality tests, projective personality tests are unstructured. In a projective personality test, either the stimulus (test materials) or the required response—or both—are ambiguous.
EXAMPLE - in the highly controversial Rorschach test, the stimulus is an inkblot. Furthermore, rather than being asked to choose among alternative responses, as in structured personality tests, the individual is asked to provide a spontaneous response.
The inkblot is presented to the subject, who is asked, “What might this be?” Projective tests assume that a person’s interpretation of an ambiguous stimulus will reflect his or her unique characteristics (see Chapter 14).
What is the purpose of psychological testing?
Psychological testing refers to all the possible uses, applications, and underlying concepts of psychological and educational tests.
The main use of these tests, though, is to evaluate individual differences or variations among individuals.
Such tests measure individual differences in ability and personality and assume that the differences shown on the test reflect actual differences among individuals.
EXAMPLE
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. Thus, the most important purpose of testing is to differentiate among those taking the tests. We shall discuss the idea of individual differences later in this chapter.
