Psychological testing
Psychological test are a kind of categorized measure of mental and behavior of a person with an objective. It is basically structured to make assessments of constructs that are barely unobserved. These tests incorporate to identify, assess and measure the tasks that any respondent has to give a solution to. They are closely related to the questionnaire tools but are different in the aspect of the performance that is expected where it requires much more response in comparison to the questionnaires (Archer, 2006). It is important to state that an important and effective test is supposed to carry with it the characteristic validity as well as reliability. That is, it has to have the effective resource that will give satisfying response and also give consistent solutions.
Categories of psychological tests and uses
There are three categories of psychological tests. First is the intelligence test. In respect to the aspect of psychology, the level of intelligence is measured in terms of the level of academic performance (Archer, 2006). Ideally, the measurement of intelligence may be accrued to the history of an individual’s capability and records of contribution in issues that are related to the academic or normal life situations. For example, one is supposed to have consecutive or a series of records that show consistence in the character trait.
Second, there is the personality test kind of a psychological test. To commence with, this kind of test is done with respect to the attributes of one’s personal characteristics. Personality is one of the vast as well as wide aspects of an individual’s existence. They include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory , Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and Rorshack Inkblot Tests (Archer, 2006). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory creates a measurement of personality on the aspect of the statements in questions to be true or false. On the other hand is the Thematic Apperception Test that deals with giving credit to an individual to project anything about him or herself. The Rorshack inkblot test is the third one that gives an account of what one sees about someone.
The third category of test is the aptitude test. This test is premeditated to implicate the talent and the aptitude characteristics of a person. It is mainly focused on the assessment of the degree in which an individual is ready to make applications on the skills as well as the knowledge that is acquired. This kind of study is used especially in student admission to high schools and colleges. As a result, there emerges the achievement test kind of psychological test. This is the kind of measure that requires assessing the level of what one knows. This kind of test is also used in the student’s level of understanding.
The fifth kind of psychological test is the interest inventory. This kind of interest is done to explicitly indicate the number of activities that one can actively engage in. ideally, this could be used to refer to the career search. The student used to presume a successful career future.
Validity and reliability of psychological tests
Validity and reliability are two measures that are vital in determining the effectiveness of a test. Validity is a measure that questions on whether the test has measured the elements that it is supposed to measure. This comes in reference to the concurrent validity, predictive reliability as well as face validity (Archer, 2006). On the other side is the reliability of the psychological test. A test is regarded as reliable if it gives rise to results that are closely related or achieve the aim of the test. They can be categorized in terms of test-retest reliability and the split- half reliability. These are results that arise as a result of redone test giving a similar solution.
References
Archer, R. P., Buffington-Vollum, J. K., Stredny, R. V., & Handel, R. W. (2006). A Survey of Psychological Test Use Patterns among Forensic Psychologists. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa8701_07
