Ψlogical
Testing

Chapter 21
…Future of Testing

Finishing up!! 💅🏁

Keep an eye on 5/23:

• Peer evaluations due 👀
  • 5 points tied to your completion
• APA paper due 👀
• Final exam due 👀
  • will be released on Saturday (Chs 17–21)

Extra Credit?

🔭🌠ASTEROID YR4 PANIC METER!!!🌌💥

Caveat

Book’s copyright date is 2018 – testing innovations have historically been slow, but many innovations are currently being made (AI looks to be a potential paradigm–shifting technology)

Issues shaping the field of testing

• Professional – related to the discipline of Psychology and all of its subdomains

• Moral – doing “what is right”

• Social – circumstances of the broader human society within which we operate (cultural forces and movements)

Professional Issues

Theoretical Concerns¹

The way Psychologists theoretically specify constructs differs across theorists. Our tests are only as good as the underlying theory (e.g., do people change over time?).

Test Adequacy

The real issue is possibly not the tests themselves, but “how tests are used” (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2018) – many ultimately be decided by courts (not Psychologists)

Actuarial vs. Clinical

Score interpretation is better when following standard procedure (vs. experienced clinical interpretation, Meehl, 1954). Majority of Psychologists do not heed in practice.

1. Psychological tests can be no better than the science of psychology that underlies them (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2018)

Moral Issues

Human Rights

• ethical “right” to NOT BE TESTED (not necessarily a legal right, however).
• knowledge of results and how those results might impact test taker

Labeling

• Simply placing someone into a category (especially of a Psychological disorder) can exacerbate conditions

Privacy

• Confidentiality has exceptions

Divided Loyalties

• who is true client – test taker or paying entity? (Jackson & Messick, 1967)

Users

• should know Ψmetric details about test before administering

Social Issues

Dehumanization

Introduction of computers and automated processing of test results has the potential to minimize the role of people in the broader testing process

Usefulness

Are these tests providing something of value to our broader society and culture? Are they helping make good military, education, legal, and business decisions?

Access

Being tested can cost 💵 – this means that some people have access to more testing than others (immediateness of opportunity also relevant here)

Current trends

1. Proliferation

• many options exist for most identified constructs

2. Higher standards

• American Educational Research Association et al. (2014) keeps expanding scope

3. Public awareness

• more people know that Ψ tests “exist”

4. Computerization

• more efficiency (via 🐱) & greater flexibility with task types

Future Trends

The textbook speculates on some general possibilities (test use will continue to grow, controversies will change but continue, & computer capabilities will expand). However, there is a VERY new & current perspective on testing (not in textbook)

Suggests a different way of thinking about “constructs”.

Examples can be found in:

• Borsboom & Cramer (2013) (applied to concepts of psychopathology)
• Epskamp et al. (2018) (more general presentation of ideas)

Reinforcing terminology:

Professional issues include everthing EXCEPT ___________

• Union dues
• Theoretical concerns
• Test adequacy
• Actuarial vs. clinical

_______________ is presented in Kaplan & Saccuzzo (2018) as a moral issue

• labeling
• stamping
• embossing
• assigning

Minimizing the role of people in the broader testing process is referred to as ___________

• dehumanization
• access restriction
• loyalty division
• actuarial vs. clinical

This concept refers to the constant creation of more and more tests

• proliferation
• higher standards
• public awareness
• computerization

Psychological testing is an awesome subject

• True!
• False

References

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education. (2014). Standards for educational and psychological testing (5th ed.). American Educational Research Association.

Borsboom, D., & Cramer, A. O. (2013). Network analysis: An integrative approach to the structure of psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 9(1), 91–121.

Epskamp, S., Maris, G., Waldorp, L. J., & Borsboom, D. (2018). Network psychometrics. The Wiley Handbook of Psychometric Testing: A Multidisciplinary Reference on Survey, Scale and Test Development, 953–986.

Jackson, D. N., & Messick, S. (1967). Problems in human assessment. McGraw-Hill.

Kaplan, R. M., & Saccuzzo, D. P. (2018). Psychological testing: Principles, application, and issues (9th ed.). Cengage.

Meehl, P. E. (1954). Clinical versus statistical prediction: A theoretical analysis and a review of the evidence.