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 am carefree
8.9250 8.4753 .2220 .0494 .7513
Q10 I am rarely9.4750
overcome 9.
with 6.2272
worries
I am carefree .5460 .3452 .5655
Q17 I am not a 9.2875
worrier 5.3720 .6160 .4367 .5080
Q18 I rarely feel
9.1750
10. I am rarely
fearful or anxious
6.8804
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 ConstructValidity
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
SHOEExtravers
things unrelated
related ion Scale
to extraversion
to extraversion .843**1.0001.000 .477**
.011
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 be
notImpatience
correlated
be correlated
HEIGHT with
Scale ‘02 with 1.000 1.000 .857** -.085
.275*
SHOEto impatience.
things related
unrelated
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