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Detailed notes for the Week 1 lecture by Dr Lorna Peters...

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PSYU3332: Principles of Psychological Assessment Lecture 1: Introduction and History of Psychological Testing Dr Lorna Peters History of Testing: Measurement of Individual Differences • There is evidence to suggest that testing was used in ancient civilisations – in China for selecting personnel for civil service, and in Ancient Greece in an educational context. • Traditionally, the function of psychological tests was to measure individual differences – how individuals differ from one another, or how one individual differs across particular measures. • Modern testing originated in the mid-19th century when there was an emerging interest in more humane treatment of people in ‘lunatic asylums’ – who either had intellectual deficits or mental illnesses. Categorisation • Esquirol (1838) and Seguin (1866, 1907) were interested in categorisation to distinguish those who had intellectual deficits from birth and those who were emotionally disturbed to refine treatment. • Esquirol described ‘degrees of mental retardation’ on a continuum from ‘normalcy’ to ‘idiocy’, beginning with rudimentary tests of intellectual ability based on language. • Seguin pioneered attempts to train the mentally impaired using techniques called ‘sense training’ and ‘muscle training’. He developed the Seguin Form Board – a piece of timber with shapes cut out, into which individuals needed to place the correct shapes. o This was an early example of testing using performance tasks in addition to language testing. Early Experimentalists • The second important influence on modern testing came from the early experimentalists, who were interested in general description of psychological functioning, viewing individual differences as error. • Wundt’s testing in the Leipzig laboratory (1879) emphasised sensory phenomena (sensitivity to auditory and visual stimuli) and standardised procedures (the need for rigorous control). Focus on Individual Differences • Sir Francis Galton developed anthropometric tests to gauge intellect, with a specific focus on differences based on genetics. He also explored the means by which we analyse data from tests. • Karl Pearson built on Galton’s ideas of statistical analysis to develop the correlation coefficient (r). • J. M. Cattell (1890) was the first to use the term ‘mental test’, running a series of anthropometric tests (involving sensory discrimination, muscle strength, memory, and reaction time) on college students. These tests were criticised for its minimal association with indicators of academic ability. • Kraepelin (1895) and Ebbinghaus (1897) assessed more complex cognitive behaviour to see whether it correlated better with other indicators of intellect (like scholastic achievement). o Kraepelin developed arithmetic tests that he used on psychiatric patients. o Ebbinghaus assessed the intellectual ability of schoolchildren using tests of arithmetic, memory span, and sentence completion (which showed the greatest correlation with scholastic achievement and is still sometimes used today in intelligence testing). Intelligence Testing • From Kraepelin and Ebbinghaus onwards, intelligence testing developed further in the early 1900s. • Binet studied procedures of educating children with intellectual deficits from birth. • The Binet-Simon Scale (1905) consisted of 30 problems involving judgment, comprehension, an d reasoning arranged in ascending order of empirical difficulty (based on performance of 50 children). • Binet revised the scale in 1908 with additional items and grouping of items by age level based on the performance of 300 children aged 3–13 with no intellectual disabilities. o This test was used to determine a ‘mental age’ for children (e.g., if an 8 year-old could only pass the 4 year-old test, they would be deemed to have a mental age of 4). • The third revision in 1911 extended the concept of mental age to include adults.

PSYU3332: Principles of Psychological Assessment •

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Terman (1916) developed the Stanford-Binet Scale and was the MA × 100 first to use an Intelligence Quotient (IQ), which he measured as IQ = CA a ratio of mental age to chronological age multiplied by 100. The Kuhlmann-Binet Scale (1912) revised the Stanford-Binet to extend to infants as young as 3 months.

Group Testing • All previous intelligence tests applied only to individuals. Group tests first emerged with WWI. • Otis (1917) developed a measure of intellect that could be administered to large groups of recruits for the purpose of assigning them to the roles for which they were best suited. • There were two tests: the Army Alpha and the Army Beta. Alpha was the standard test and Beta was specifically for those whose first language was not English, or who could not read. • This reflects the influence of societal need on the course of testing. Personality Testing • Alongside intellect tests, tests of personality (emotional states, interpersonal relations, motivations, interests, and attitudes) were also being developed. • Kraepelin (1892) developed the use of free association for psychiatric patients to assess personality. • Sommer (1894) developed the factor analysis technique to analyse the data from free association tests. • Sophisticated personality tests were developed on the basis of three types of personality tests: o self-report inventories – e.g., Personal Data Sheet (Woodworth, 1917), o performance or situational tests – e.g., Hartshorne & May (1920s, 1930s), o projective tests – e.g., Rorschach inkblots, Thematic Apperception Test. Psychological Tests Definition • A psychological test is formally defined as a standardised measure of a sample of behaviour. o It must be standardised, meaning it is administered and interpreted in the same way across all testing occasions, and it should aim to tell us something beyond the sample. • There are two broad types of tests: o ability tests are designed to determine maximum performance, o personality tests are designed to demonstrate typical performance. Uses •

Psychological tests are used to provide scores that enhance decision-making in a variety of contexts: o clinical – e.g., classification for diagnosis, determining treatment, and monitoring progress, o schools – e.g., exams for measuring achievement, or grouping students into class types, o business and industry – e.g., for staff selection or forming teams, o counselling – e.g., measuring emotional wellbeing and interpersonal relationships, o research – theory development.

Sources of Information: • online databases – e.g., PsycInfo, PsycTests, Mental Measurements Yearbook (Buros), • textbooks on psychological assessment, • test publishers’ websites, • test library (at universities and other training institutions), • test manuals. Many psychological tests are restricted in availability to qualified psychologists to prevent familiarity resulting in invalidity, and to prevent abuse and inappropriate interpretation of scores....