Free Psychological Test and Measurement Essay Sample

Testing  as used in psychology  is a practice which is characterized  by the use of some samples of  observed behavior  for purposes of evaluating  the psychological  aspects  like the  cognitive and the  emotional performance of  a given individual. The testing is on  some individual  perform some task  which has been predefined beforehand hence been able to attach some scores on the test .The responses  by  different individuals are compiled  to form some statistical  tables that can allow the  evaluator   to be able to conduct the comparison  of the  behaviors  of the individuals who were tested. (Michell, 1999)

 There are various  categories of  test that  are in existence .One  of the best   is the various  test of intelligence  which  gives the intelligent quotient  mostly known as the I Q .some  two  test  used  to measure  this  are the  Weschler  and  Stanford-Binet  test. These  and  other  test  are  commonly  used  to  group people into  mentally  retarded  ,those  who  are  learning  disabled ,those  who are just  normal and  the  gifted lot .An  intelligence  quotient  test    measure   the actual  performance  and  not the  innate  potential of  a person. Though  it is  mostly associated  with  academic  success  ,it  can  also  be  used to   measure  ones job  performance ,the  social-economical development among  other  uses. There  has  also  been  some  studies  which  have related  the  I Q ,with  a person’s  health ,lifespan margin  and  the  functional  literacy of  a person. The  average  I Q score  for  an average or  normal  person  is  said to  be  100.The  score  range  for  those  who  are  above  average  could  have  a  deviation of  between  15 and  16.There  hast  also  been some  documented  fact  about  the  I Q  score for  the  left  handed  people   to be  on the  higher  limit   of  any  class of  category. The  majority  right  handed  people  of  course  been  on  the   lower  limit  and  the  middle  level. There  has  also  been  some  major  development  on what  kind  of  data  that  I Q can be  used to  measure  and  these  have  range from language  fluency, the  three dimensional  thinking and so  on. (Mislevy, 2004)

 Another  very  well known  combination  of tests are the  Rorschach Ink Blot test  together  with  the  Minnesota  Multiphase  Personality Inventory abbreviated  as  MMPI .They  are  used  to  test  the  personality of  different   kinds of people .Rorschach   test  involves  trying to  make  sense  out  of  the  way people  respond  to  spontaneous  verbal  answers to  some  unknown  ink  blot  pictures .On the  other  hand  the  MMPI  test makes  use  of   how  a person  makes  sense  out  of one’s  ability to  give  a response  to  a  large  true  or  false  answer  questionnaire. Rorschach  is  described  as  being  more  objective  in the  sense that  ,it’s  study makes  use  of  some  rigorous  known  scientific studies .Occupational  tests  tries  to  match  ones  interests  of  a person  in some  known  careers .An  example   of  such  a  test  would  be  that  if  a  person’s  interest   in  life  would  for  instance  match  the   interest  of  most  school  teachers  ,then  that  would mean  that  one  would  probably  make  a good  teacher. Personality  tests  attempts   a person’s  basic   personality styles   which  could  be  used  to  measure  some    clinical diagnosis .Neuropsychological  test  takes  an  effort   to  measure  deficits  in the  cognitive  functioning including  the  ability  to  think, reason, speak, pronounce and  so on. (Thurstone, 1929)

A reliable  measure  is intended  to  give  a consistent  result  across time ,situations  and different  individuals  and  a valid  measure  is  one  that  measures for  what  its  intended  to measure .The  consistency   over  some  repeated    measure  of  similar  test  can  be  done  using  thee  pearson correlation coefficient. A reliable test must give the same result over time ,or to the very least have some minor deviation on the result generated .In  other words the scores other  result must be consistent and highly correlated(to establish test retest reliability).Failure to a test being reliable would mean the test is of little value .To check the reliability of an I Q tester a large group of people would be tested  and then the same test be administered  to check the reliability of the test. The reliability could also be tested by comparing the score on half of the group to score on the other half of the same group(split half reliability).

 A test has validity if it measures what it claims to measure. Validity is usually demonstrated by comparing test scores by actual performance .This is called criterion validity. A test of legal aptitude ,for example ,might be validated by comparing scores on the test to grades in a law school .If  high scores correlate  with high scores or some other standard of success ,the test may be considered valid .One  thing to  note  is  that  without reliability  ,there  can  be  no  validity The  striking  problem  with psychological tests  is  based  on  their  ability  to  measure  what  they  are  meant  to measure. A  from  which   common  problem  with  the  validity  emerges  when  one  opts to  use  a  test  for  the  wrong  purpose  it  was  intended  for. So  there   is a room  for  some flaws even  when  a  qualified  psychologist  uses  all of  the  best   tests  to   come  up  with some  conclusions .Following  this  its  expected  that  ,even if psychology  test tries  to  answer  the  question  of  ,whether  to  accept  a  person  or  not, mistakes   are always  expected.

 

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