Psychological Testing Exam 1

Wechsler

1940's; developed the Wechsler intelligence scales- focus on verbal/perceptual organization & overall performance b/c the "overall" is more reliable

Rapport

A comfortable, warm atmosphere that serves to motivate examinees and elicit cooperation; if a tester fails to establish rapport then it may cause a subject to be anxious, passive aggressive, noncooperative, or hostile; especially crucial when evaluating children.

Standardization Sample

A large and representative group of subjects representative of the population for whom the test is intended.

Standard Score

A set of scores that have the same mean and standard deviation so they can be compared. Expresses the distance between the standard deviation and the mean.

Psychometrician

A specialist in psychology or education who develops and evaluates psychological tests

Testing

A test is a, "standardized sample of behaviors from which other, more important behaviors can be inferred or predicted". Also, "an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior". A test: (1) Follows standardized procedures (2) Samples behavior (3) Composed of scores or categories (4) Have norms or standards (5) Predict non-test behavior. However, testing is just one component of assessment.

Test items and prediction

A test item does not have to appear to measure a certain construct, like depression, for it to be a predictor of a construct. It is a statistical question. Remember the example "I drink a lot of water" item and the prediction of depression. Drinking a lot of water is correlated with depression, but the question itself does not measure if the individual has depression.

Woodworth and the personal data sheet

An early structured personality test that assumed that a test response can be taken at face value. Had a yes/no format to assess anxiety.

A-B-C analysis and behavioral assessment/procedures

Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence analysis lets the observer determine what triggered a behavior and if there was a consequence given; usually several observations are made in different settings which are then compared

Assessment

Assessment includes interviews with students, teachers, parents, etc.; observations; self-observations; and consultations (as well as testing).

Detecting disabilities that may affect examinee test performance.

Before you begin testing a child it is important to know if there are any factors including hearing, visual, speech, or motor impairments that may affect the examinees test performance. Before giving a test, you should check with the school nurse to see if the child passed a hearing and vision test. If the haven't and do not have the corrective equipment, you cannot give the child a test. There may be instances in which flexibility in procedures are desirable or even necessary. You should just note on the very front of the report that adjustments had to be made to give the test to the child; therefore, the results of the tests could potentially not have given very accurate results. If you give a test to a child with a disability that you didn't account for, those results are no longer valid.

References for obtaining more information about specific tests.

Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY), test in print, journal articles, publishers

Impact of psychological testing

Can have profound impacts on individual's lives and families.

Standardization Sample or Norm Group

Consists of a sample of examinees who are representative of the population for whom the test is intended.

Criterion-referenced Tests

Determines where the examinee stands with respect to very tightly defined educational objectives.

Damaye

Developed assessment of 20 different areas of language (with Blin); the test focused on body parts, naming objects, directions for simple tasks, etc.

Seguine/Esquirol

French physicians that differentiated mental illness from mental disability; Esquirol proposed the first classification system for mental disabilities; Sequine was a student of Esquirol and was an interventionist interested in treatment.

Wissler

Greatest accomplishment was being the first to use tests to predict academic performance; his mental test scores showed no correlation between academic achievement - he used a homogeneous sample of smart medical students when he should have used a heterogenous sample; became so frustrated he changed professions.

Goddard

In 1906, Goddard translated the Binet-Simon Scale and tested kids at the Vineland Training Schools. This scale used classification. He considered this to be very significant and that these children needed to be separate, so that they did not "contaminate" society. Goddard was asked to go to Ellis Island (NY) in order to improve the immigration test because it was thought, at that time, that the feebleminded immigrants would be bad for America/society. Goddard was the most influential psychologist in the US. He called for the colonization of "morons". It is now thought that Goddard engaged in abusing psychiatric testing by testing immigrants as soon as they arrived or "got off the boat". Many immigrants were tired, sick, hungry and could not speak English. The test was first translated from French to English then to other languages of the immigrants; however, Goddard still concluded that many immigrants were feebleminded and was in favor of sending them back to their native countries. Later, he changed his views and noted that the immigrants could be trained and used to work on the railroads, etc. Several performance scales were derived from Goddard's time at Ellis Island.

Importance of studying the history of psychological testing.

In order to learn from the mistakes made in the past, to learn what does and does not work, to add to what is already out there as far as testing goes and to study the reasons for the tests at the given points of time

Coaching

In testing, the attempt to boost test scores by providing the examinee with extra practice on test-like materials, review of fundamental concepts likely to be covered by the test, and advice about optimal test-taking strategies. It is important to note that coaching is NOT cheating. In fact, many testing companies will provide classes and materials to help student practice.

Uses of psychological and educational tests

Intelligence Tests yield IQ scores and educational tests such as achievement tests (like the Woodcock Johnson) produce scores related to academic subjects (math, reading, spelling, writing, problem solving, etc). These scores can be compared and used to detect disabilities or giftedness in children. Other tests are also given to test processes such as hearing, vision, motor skills, adaptive behavior skills, executive functions etc.

Galton

Invented the 1st test battery 1800's; 1883 - believed he could measure anything; was known as the "Father of Mental Testing"; he focused on sensory motor functions which ultimately proved to be useless; however, his methodology was beneficial.

Why is a standardization sample important?

It is crucial to the usefulness of the test. The group must be representative of the population for whom the test is intended or else it is not possible to determine an examinee's relative standing.

Levels of Tests

Level A- straight-forward that can be scored with minimal training Level B- Requires knowledge of test instruments and statistics (i.e. aptitude tests) Level C- Requires a substantial understanding on special topics

Group Tests

Mainly pencil-and-paper measures suitable to the testing of large groups of persons at the same time. The first to develop a group test was Pyle in 1913 . However, due to prior group tests needing to be hand scored, it wasn't until the United States entered World War I in 1917 that group testing became popularized. It was then that Robert M. Yerkes convinced the U.S. government and the Army that all recruits should be given intelligence tests for the purpose of classification and assignment. Thus emerged the Army Alpha and Army Beta group tests.

What is the mean and SD of a Z Score

Mean: 0 SD: 1

What is the mean and SD of a T Score

Mean: 50 SD: 10

Achievement tests

Measure a person's degree of learning, success, or accomplishment in a subject or task; assumes most schools have taught the subject matter directly; the purpose is to determine how much of the material the subject has absorbed/ mastered; typically have several subtests such as reading, math, language, science, or social studies.

Labels and mental retardation

Prior to the 1900s, when the Binet intelligence tests were being formed, there was little interest in educational needs of children with mental retardation. In the Middle Ages, mentally retarded individuals were "diagnosed" as witches and put to death by burning. Later on, they were alternately ignored, persecuted, or tortured. Bromberg (1959) has a graphic chapter on various forms of maltreatment toward those with mental and emotional disabilities. In 1698, a prominent physician wrote a gruesome book, Flagellum Salutis, where beatings were advocated as treatment "in melancholia; in frenzy; in paralysis; in epilepsy; in facial expression of feebleminded."

Conditions that may affect examinee test performance.

Several other factors can affect an examinees performance on a test. First, extraneous factors including the manner of the administration, characteristics of the examiner, the testing environment, motivation and experiences of the examinee, and scoring can have an affect on a student. It's important that tests are administered in standardized conditions and that the evaluators precisely follow the administration, scoring, and interpretation procedures set forth in the manual.

Restriction of range

Smaller range size (such as age range).

Percentile

Specific point in a distribution of data that has a given percentage of cases below it.

Characteristics of psychological tests

Standardized procedures, behavior samples, scores or categories, norms or standards, prediction of non test behavior

Cattel

Studied with Galton and recognized the need for psychoeducational testing; was a student of Wundt and Galton then came to the US to work at Columbia University; invented "mental test" 1890 publication - mental tests and measurements; his former students were Thornidke, Wissler, Strong, and Woodworth.

Binet and Simon and the 1905 Scale

The Binet and Simon 1905 scale was the first formal scale for assessing the intelligence of children. Included 30 tests (a battery of tests) that ranged from utterly simple sensory tests to quite complex verbal abstractions. Appropriate for assessing severe mental retardation to high levels of giftedness. Aside from the very simplest tests, which were designed for classification of low-grade idiots the tests were heavily weighted toward verbal skills, reflecting Binet's departure from the Galtonian tradition. However, Binet and Simon did not offer a precise method for arriving at a total score for the 1905 scale (the purpose was to classify the student, not measure the severity), which is one reason this scale was revised in 1908. The 1908 scale not only introduced a rough scoring system, but also included 58 items and the major innovation of introduction of the concept of mental level. The 1911 test included adults and each age level had exactly 5 tests. Also, new scoring methods were introduced. Compared mental age with chronological age (ex: 9 year old functioning with mental level of a 6 year old was "retarded" by 3 years)

Chinese Testing of Officials

The Chinese Emperor had his officials examined every 3 years to determine their fitness for office; written exams were introduced during the Han dynasty that included questions about civil law, military affairs, agriculture, revenue, and geography; in 1370 Confucianism was emphasized and officials had a day/night to write a poem or essay before they were selected to move to the next rounding of examinations; abolished examination system in 1906 because it was unnecessarily hard and the Chineses failed to validate their selection procedures.

Army Alpha and Army Beta and Testing during WWI and WWII.

The US government was convinced by Robert Yerkes, a Harvard professor of psychology, that 1.75 million military recruits should be given intelligence tests. The Army Alpha and Army Beta were the first group tests. The Army Alpha was mainly a verbal test based on the works of Otis (psychiatrist from 1918). The Army Beta had questionable effectiveness, results were used to substantiate predjudices. The positive outcome was that it gave American psychologists tons of experience. These tests helped segregate recruits into ability classifications and get rid of incompetent recruits. By the end of WWI, industries, colleges, public schools became interested in the potential applications to the tests.

Raw Scores

The most basic level of information provided by a psychological test. In personality testing it is often the number of questions answered in the keyed direction for a specific scale. In ability testing, the raw score commonly consists of the number of questions answered correctly.

Standard Deviation (SD)

The most commonly used statistical index of variability in a group of scores. Designated as s or abbreviated as SD. Reflects the degree of dispersion in a group of scores.

Norm-referenced Tests

The performance of each examinee is interpreted in reference to a relevant standardization sample.

Skewness

The symmetry in a statistical distribution, in which the curve appears distorted or skewed either to the left or right. When scores are piled up on the low end of scale, the distribution is said to be positively skewed. If the scores are piled up on the high end of the scale, the distribution is said to be negatively skewed. Skewed distributions usually signify that the test developer has included too few easy items or too few hard items.

Quartiles

There are 4 quartiles in a sample. 25% is the first quartile (25% of the scores are lower than this), 50% is the second quartile (the median) and 75% is the 3rd quartile (3/4 of the scores fall below this).

Brass Instruments

Use of assorted brass instruments to measure sensory thresholds and reactions times, thinking that such abilities were a measure of intelligence. They heated these instruments and touched the individual with it to see the reaction they would have. Mistook simple sensory processes (touch) as intelligence.

A Z Score of 0 is equal to a standardized score of:

Usually 100 (SD is commonly 15)

The normal curve/normal distribution

When data falls within the normal curve, it is in the average range of the distribution. A symmetrical, mathematically defined, bell-shaped frequency distribution.

Factor Analysis

a family of statistical procedures that researchers use to summarize relationships among variables that are correlated in highly complex ways; the goal of factor analysis is to drive a parsimonious(frugal) set of derived factors. Ex: factor analysis may help a researcher discover a battery of 20 tests represents only 4 underlying variables, called factors.

Projective Test

a projective test is a personality test designed to let the person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the test

Forced-choice triad

allow subjects to focus on fewer problems at a time rather than sorting tasks; the use of two or more specific response options on a survey or questionnaire such as "yes" or "no" or "red" "blue" or "green". options such as "no opinion", or "not applicable" are not included in the choices

Binet & Simon definition of intelligence

developed intelligence tests to do this, tests were heavily weighted toward verbal intelligence. The focus was to identify those with special needs.

Access to tests

differences in levels of education are required to administer some tests. Level C requires at the very least a masters in psychology, ED.S, or higher. All levels of tests require extensive training and supervision at first. Some level A tests can be given by testers with a Bachelor's degree (ie. teacher)

Army Alpha Focus Points

following oral directions arithmetic reasoning practical judgement synonym/antonym pairs disarranged sentences number series analogies information

Personality tests

helps predict future behavior by measuring the traits, qualities, or behaviors that determines a person's individuality; can be checklists, inventories, and projective techniques (i.e. inkblots, sentence completions)

Rorschach

inkblot test developed by Swiss psychiatrist, Hermann Rorschach, to study personality. He was strongly influenced by Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking, so it was natural that his new approach focused on the tendency of patients to reveal their innermost conflicts unconsciously when responding to ambiguous stimuli like the ink blots. When responding to ambiguous stimuli, people inadvertently disclose their innermost needs, fantasies, and conflicts

Advantages of individually administered tests

more flexibility for students with disabilities; modifications and/or alterations can be made; easier to establish rapport; less likely to have environmental errors or interference; increased validity

Individual Tests

must be administered one- on- one; an important advantage of these is that the examiner can gauge the level of motivation of the subject and assess the relevance of other factors (i.e. impulsiveness or anxiety) on the test results

Validity studies associated with tests

non-standardized testing administration causes problems with validity

Army Beta Focus Points

non-verbal skills perceptual/motor tests pictorial directions and gestures were used to explain the test to prospects

Test anxiety

phenomenological, physiological, and behavioral responses that accompany concern about possible failure on a test

Race and Ethnic differences in test sores during WWI

recruits were given intelligence tests to determine what position they would be given. Many whose first language was not English were given a score of 0, not due to them being mentally retarded, but due to the tests being extremely long and not understood.

Projective Hypothesis

refers to the notion that when ambiguous and unstructured stimuli, the responses elicited by a person reflects one's needs, feelings, anxieties, motives, thoughts, conflicts, and prior behavioral conditioning.

Using tests in the decision making process

testing can help with decision making by providing classifications which give a basis for treatment and placement; placement- sorting people to meet their individual needs; screening- determines if further testing is warranted- these are simple and short tests; classification/selection- pass/fail quality- selected to attend a certain program, etc; testing is also used for diagnosing and treatment planning, self-knowledge, program evaluations and research.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

the original was used to diagnose hypochondriasis (always thinking you are sick), anxiety, schizophrenia, masculinity, femininity, social aversion, and hysteria; first published in 1943; 566 item true/false personality inventory

Yerkes

was born in rural Penn.; he was a primatologist; wanted to be a physician and received medical training at Harvard but ended up graduating in psychology; in 1917 he was president of the APA; he developed the Army Alpha and Beta tests; he spent time observing chimps in Cuba; he pioneered psychology at Harvard