What Are the Complexities of Developing a Psychological Test?
Many factors go into developing a psychological test. It has to have validity, be reliable, be internally consistent and have the right scale sensitivity.
Other People Are Reading
-
Face Validity
-
According to the American Psychological Association website, validity is when a test measures what it is supposed to. Face validity is when a test outwardly appears to measure what it is intended to measure.
-
Criterion-related Validity
-
Criterion-related validity means that a psychological test measuring a certain trait should produce similar (correlated) results to other psychological tests measuring the trait.
Construct Validity
-
Construct validity is when a test asks only about what it is supposed to measure.
Internal Consistency
-
Internal consistency is the property in which questions within a psychological test measure the same thing as each other and are weighted correctly within the total score.
Number of Questions
-
A test should have enough questions to cover multiple aspects of a trait or disorder, without being overwhelmingly long.
Scale Sensitivity
-
It is important that psychological test have a sensitive enough scale A more sensitive scale will have more options for question answers and gather more specific information, while a less sensitive scale will have fewer options and gather less detailed information (e.g. one to 10 scale versus one to four scale).
References
- Photo Credit "Taking a test at the Real Estate Investing College" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Casey Serin (Casey Serin) under the Creative Commons Attribution license. "Free coiled tape measure healthy living stock photo Creative Commons" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Pink Sherbet Photography (D. Sharon Pruitt) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
