- Also called:
- psychometrics
psychological testing
-
What is psychological testing?
Psychological testing systematically uses tests to quantify behavior, abilities, and problems, and to predict psychological performance. These tests can evaluate academic or vocational skills, diagnose troublesome behavior, and select workers.
Psychological tests aid in diagnosis, differentiating psychiatric from organic problems, measuring intelligence, detecting emotional abnormalities, and evaluating personality or cognitive functioning. A trained psychologist usually administers testing, and each result must be combined with clinical evaluations and other tests to be of greatest value.
Psychological tests include personality and depression assessments, cognitive function screens, and projective techniques.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why are psychological tests used?
Psychological tests serve various purposes, including quantifying behaviors, abilities, and challenges to predict future psychological performance. They aid in diagnosing and differentiating psychiatric from organic problems, measuring intelligence, and detecting emotional abnormalities.
These tests can evaluate academic or vocational skills, diagnose mental health issues, and assist in selecting workers across different industries. Standardized psychological tests provide objective measurements, ensuring fair evaluations across diverse populations by identifying and addressing potential biases. They help schools to evaluate the effectiveness of their educational programs and identify areas for improvement.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are some common types of psychological tests?
Psychological tests systematically quantify behavior, abilities, and issues to predict psychological performance. They aid in diagnosing and detecting problematic behavior, differentiating psychiatric from organic problems, measuring intelligence, and evaluating personality or cognitive functioning.
Common psychological tests include:
* Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) A questionnaire assessing personality and psychopathology.
* Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) A screening test for cognitive impairment and dementia.
* Rorschach test Projective test using inkblots to assess emotional aberrations.
* Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Employs ambiguous pictures to reveal anxieties and interpersonal relationships.
* Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) A self-administered test that measures depression.
* Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale Measures the severity of depression.
* Intelligence tests Measure the capacity to make abstractions, to learn, and to deal with novel situations.
* Sentence-completion test Gathers information about a person’s concerns and emotional conflicts.4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do psychologists make sure a test is fair and accurate?
Psychologists ensure the fairness and accuracy of tests through several methods. They start by conducting trial runs to check instructions, time allowances, and to identify any ambiguities. Items that are too easy or difficult are discarded.
To ensure tests are fair across populations, psychometricians may be employed to flag and remove problematic questions. They analyze if questions assume background knowledge more often held by specific groups, adapting them for different populations.
They also focus on test validity, which ensures the test measures what it intends to measure, and reliability, which ensures consistent measurements.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What is the difference between an intelligence test and a personality test?
Intelligence tests measure the capacity to learn, make abstractions, and deal with new situations, often providing a quantitative index of individual ability. Personality tests, on the other hand, gauge characteristics like feelings, motivations, attitudes, and interpersonal relations approaches. Intelligence tests like the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale evaluate skills in arithmetic, memory, and vocabulary, while personality tests use methods such as interviews, self-reports, and observations. Personality tests are used in clinical, employment, and research settings.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How can psychological testing help diagnose mental health conditions?
Psychological tests aid in diagnosing mental health conditions by measuring abilities, behaviors, and problems. These tests differentiate psychiatric from organic issues, evaluate personality, detect emotional abnormalities, and measure intelligence.
Commonly used psychological tests include:
* Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): assesses personality and psychopathology
* Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE): screens for cognitive impairment
* Rorschach test: uses inkblots to assess emotional aberrations
* Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): uses ambiguous pictures to reveal anxieties and interpersonal relationships
* Beck Depression Inventory (BDI): measures subjective experiences and psychological symptoms associated with depressionThese tests involve interviews, behavioral observations, and self-reports. Results are combined with clinical evaluations and history for accurate diagnosis.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
psychological testing, the systematic use of tests to quantify psychophysical behaviour, abilities, and problems and to make predictions about psychological performance.
The word “test” refers to any means (often formally contrived) used to elicit responses to which human behaviour in other contexts can be related. When intended to predict relatively distant future behaviour (e.g., success in school), such a device is called an aptitude test. When used to evaluate the individual’s present academic or vocational skill, it may be called an achievement test. In such settings as guidance offices, mental-health clinics, and psychiatric hospitals, tests of ability and personality may be helpful in the diagnosis and detection of troublesome behaviour. Industry and government alike have been prodigious users of tests for selecting workers. Research workers often rely on tests to translate theoretical concepts (e.g., intelligence) into experimentally useful measures.
General problems of measurement in psychology
Physical things are perceived through their properties or attributes. A mother may directly sense the property called temperature by feeling her infant’s forehead. Yet she cannot directly observe colicky feelings or share the infant’s personal experience of hunger. She must infer such unobservable private sensations from hearing her baby cry or gurgle; from seeing him flail his arms, or frown, or smile. In the same way, much of what is called measurement must be made by inference. Thus, a mother suspecting her child is feverish may use a thermometer, in which case she ascertains his temperature by looking at the thermometer, rather than by directly touching his head.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Indeed, measurement by inference is particularly characteristic of psychology. Such abstract properties or attributes as intelligence or introversion never are directly measured but must be inferred from observable behaviour. The inference may be fairly direct or quite indirect. If persons respond intelligently (e.g., by reasoning correctly) on an ability test, it can be safely inferred that they possess intelligence to some degree. In contrast, people’s capacity to make associations or connections, especially unusual ones, between things or ideas presented in a test can be used as the basis for inferring creativity, although producing a creative product requires other attributes, including motivation, opportunity, and technical skill.
Types of measurement scales
To measure any property or activity is to assign it a unique position along a numerical scale. When numbers are used merely to identify individuals or classes (as on the backs of athletes on a football team), they constitute a nominal scale. When a set of numbers reflects only the relative order of things (e.g., pleasantness-unpleasantness of odours), it constitutes an ordinal scale. An interval scale has equal units and an arbitrarily assigned zero point; one such scale, for example, is the Fahrenheit temperature scale. Ratio scales not only provide equal units but also have absolute zero points; examples include measures of weight and distance.
Although there have been ingenious attempts to establish psychological scales with absolute zero points, psychologists usually are content with approximations to interval scales; ordinal scales often are used as well.