Psychology Practical File
Psychology Practical File
1. Psychology Practical File with name, class and section [Front page]
2. Index
3. Introduction to Psychological testing [Heading]
Psychological Tests
Performance on the items produces a test score. A score on a well-constructed test is believed to
reflect a psychological construct such as achievement in a school subject, ability, aptitude,
emotional functioning, personality, etc. Differences in test scores are thought to reflect individual
differences in the construct the test is supposed to measure. The technical term for the science
behind psychological testing is psychometrics.
Types of tests
Tests have been developed to measure many different human developments. They are classified
as:
• Standardization - All procedures and steps must be conducted with consistency and
under the same environment to achieve the same testing performance from those
being tested.
• Objectivity - Scoring such that subjective judgments and biases are minimized, with
results for each test taker obtained in the same way.
• Test Norms - The average test score within a large group of people where the
performance of one individual can be compared to the results of others by
establishing a point of comparison or frame of reference.
• Reliability - Obtaining the same result after multiple testing. It refers to the
consistency of scores obtained by the same person when re-examined with the same
test with different set of questions at another time.
• Validity - The type of test being administered must measure what it is intended to measure.
Types of Validity
1. Face Validity: Face validity is a measure of how representative a research project is ‘at face
2. Content Validity Content validity is the estimate of how much a measure represents every
single element of a construct.
3. Criterion Validity Criterion Validity assesses whether a test reflects a certain set of abilities.
• Concurrent validity measures the test against a benchmark test and high correlation indicates
that the test has strong criterion validity.
• Predictive validity is a measure of how well a test predicts abilities. It involves testing a
group of subjects for a certain construct and then comparing them with results obtained at
some point in the future.
4. Construct Validity: Construct validity defines how well a test or experiment measures up to
its claims. A test designed to measure depression must only measure that particular construct,
not closely related ideals such as anxiety or stress.
7.Various definitions:
• Percentile Rank – An individual`s percentile rank on a test designates the percentage of
cases or scores lying below it. For e.g. Percentile 20 means the individual is situated above
20% of the group fall below this person`s rank.
• Percentage – A rate, number or amount in each hundred. Any proportion or share in
relation to a whole.
• Stanine scores – According to this method the standard population is divided into 9
groups. Stanine 1 is the lowest and stanine 9 is the highest.
• Sten Scores – standard scores on a scale of ten.
• Standrard scores – It designates the individual`s position with respect to the total range
and distribution of scores. The standard score indicates, in terms of standard deviation how
far a particular score is removed from the mean of the distribution.
• Difference between test and experiment
Test Experiment
It is standardized instrument used to The researcher tries to manipulate the
measure intellectual and non-intellectual situation and tries to prove or disapprove a
characteristics of an individual through hypothesis
verbal or non-verbal measures
It evaluates certain attributes of an It determines cause and effect relationship
individual. between variables.
It does not have a hypothesis It has a hypothesis.
It is standardized and has norms. It does not have norms and is meant for
verification of various principles.