PSYC340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Psychological Testing, Construct Validity, Content Validity
9 Jun 2018
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Unit 3: Intelligence and Psychological Testing
Describe and provide examples, where available, of the principal broad categories and subcategories of
psychological tests. (pp. 395-396)
Psychological test are used extensively in research, but most of them were developed to serve a pratical
purpose outside the laboratory. Most tests can be placed in one of two broad categories: mental ability
test and personality tests. Psychological testing originated with efforts to measure general mental
ability. Todays, tests of mental abilities remain the most common kind of psychological test. This broad
class of the tests includes three principal subcategories: intelligence tests, aptitude tests, and
achievement tests. They are intended to assess intellectual potential rather than previous learning or
accumulated knowledge. Aptitude test are also designed to measure potential more than knowledge,
but they break mental ability into separate components. Thus, aptitudes tests assess specific types of
mental abilities. For example, the differential aptitude tests assess verbal reasoning, numerical ability,
abstract reasoning, perceptual speed and accuracy, mechanical reasoning, space relationship
Explain the concepts of standardization and test norms. (p. 396)
Standardization refers to the uniform procedures used in the administration and scoring of a test. All
subjects get the same questions, and the same time limits so that their scores can be compared
meaningfully. The standardization of a test s scoring system includes the development of the test norm,
Test norm provide information about where a score on a psychological test ranks in relation to other
scores on that test. The test norm are needed because psychological tests tell you how you score
relative to other people They tell you, for instance, that you are average in creativity or slightly above
average in clerical ability. These interpretations are derived from the test norms that help you
understand what your test score means. Usually, test norms allow you to convert your raw score on a
test into a percentile. Comment: Many tests today are made up of subtests or subscales. Instead of a
single score for a norm, a profile is generated that represents performance of individual subscales.
Norms provide much of the rationale behind the testing movement. Without being able to compare an
idividual’s perforace to that of others, tests are relatively useless.
Explain the meaning of test reliability and validity, and discuss how these qualities are estimated. What
is the difference between content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity? (pp. 396-
400)
Reliability refers to the measurement consistency of a test ( or of other kinds of measurements
techniques). Like most other types of measuring devices, psychological test are not perfectly reliable. A
test reliability can be estimated in several ways (hempel,2005). One widely used approach is to check
test-retest reliability, which is estimated by comparing subjects scores on two administrations of test.
Reliability estimates require the computation of correlation. In estimating test-retest reliability, the two
variables that must be correlated are the two sets of scores from the two administrations of the test. If
people get fairly similar scores on the two administrations of our hypothetical assertiveness test, this
consistency yields a substantial positive correlation. Validity, All tests are designed to measure
something; hopefully something specific. If the test does indeed measure what it is intended to
measure, then we can say that the test is valid (or has validity). construct validity to be the overarching
category. Construct validity is the approximate truth of the conclusion that your operationalization
accurately reflects its construct. All of the other terms address this general issue in different ways.
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Document Summary
Describe and provide examples, where available, of the principal broad categories and subcategories of psychological tests. (pp. Psychological test are used extensively in research, but most of them were developed to serve a pratical purpose outside the laboratory. Most tests can be placed in one of two broad categories: mental ability test and personality tests. Psychological testing originated with efforts to measure general mental ability. Todays, tests of mental abilities remain the most common kind of psychological test. This broad class of the tests includes three principal subcategories: intelligence tests, aptitude tests, and achievement tests. They are intended to assess intellectual potential rather than previous learning or accumulated knowledge. Aptitude test are also designed to measure potential more than knowledge, but they break mental ability into separate components. Thus, aptitudes tests assess specific types of mental abilities. For example, the differential aptitude tests assess verbal reasoning, numerical ability, abstract reasoning, perceptual speed and accuracy, mechanical reasoning, space relationship.
