RESEARCH METHODS
(PART 2)
CHAPTER 2
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS
Assessment of - Human intelligence, aptitude,
personality, interests, attitudes, values,
educational achievement, etc.
Used for- Personnel selection, placement,
training, guidance, diagnosis, etc, in various
fields.
Definition- “Psychological Test is a standardised
and objective instrument which is used to
assess an individual’s standing in relation to
others on some mental or behavioural
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS (Cont.)
Objectivity- “Fairness in evaluation i.e., If 2 or more
researchers administer a psychological test on the
same group of people, both of them would come up
with more or less same values for each person in
the group.”
Standardisation- “Uniformity of procedure in
administering, scoring, and interpretation of the
scores of the test”
How can a psychological test become objective and
standardised?
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS (Cont.)
How can a psychological test become objective
and standardised?
1. Items in the test should be worded in such a manner that
they communicate the same meaning to different readers
2. Instructions to the test takers about how to answer the
test should be specified in advance
3. Procedure of administering the test such as-
environmental conditions, time limit, mode of
administration (Individual or group) should be spelt ( And
need to be same), and procedure for scoring of the
participant’s responses need to be described.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS (Cont.)
Construction of a test is a systematic step and
involves:
1. Various Steps in construction
2. Detailed Analysis of items
3. Estimating of the following things for the whole
test-
a) Reliability
b) Validity
c) Norms
Reliability
Refers to “Consistency of scores obtained by an individual on
the same test on 2 different occasions”
Types of Reliability:
1. Test-retest Reliability
It indicates the Temporal Stability
Computed by finding the co-efficient of correlation between 2
sets of scores on the same set of persons
2. Split-half Reliability
Indication about the degree of internal consistency of the test
(Consistency of test items
For this the test is divided into 2 equal halves. (Using odd-even
method)
3. Inter-Rater Reliability
Consistency of scores obtained when the test is
evaluated by 2 or more raters
Degree to which different raters give consistent
estimates of the same behaviour
Validity
Refers to “Whether the test measures what it claims to
measure”
EXAMPLE
You plan to construct a test to measure Mathematical
Achievement,
If it actually measures Mathematic Achievement
Test is Valid
If it rather measure Language Proficiency Test
is Not Valid
Types of Validity
1. Face Validity
A measure of how representative a research project is at the
‘face value’ and whether it appears to be a good project.
[Link] Validity
Estimate of how much a measure represents every single element
of a construct
3. Construct Validity
Whether the test measures the construct (eg, Intelligence,
anxiety, personality etc) it claims to measure
It has 2 types:
i)Convergent Validity
ii)Divergent Validity
Norms
Leads to standardisation of tests
Refers to “ Normal or average performance of the group”
(Average scores in a test)
How are Norms developed?
The Test is administered on a large number of students
The their average performance standards are set
based on their age, sex, place of residence, etc.
Thus norms help us:
1. To compare performance of an individual student with
others of the same group
2. To interpret individual’s score obtained on a test
4. Criterion Validity
Refers to the degree to which a test score is related to
a meaningful outcome or criterion of interest
Types
i)Concurrent Validity
ii)Predictive Validity
i)Concurrent Validity:
both the test scores and criterion measure are collected at
the same time
ii) Predictive Validity
A measure of how well a test predicts abilities.
Criterion ratings are obtained at some point after the test
scores were obtained.
TYPES OF TESTS
I. On the basis of language
II. On the basis of mode of administration
III. On the basis of Difficulty level
TYPES OF TEST- On the Basis of
Language
VERBAL TESTS NON-VERBAL TESTS PERFORMANCE TESTS
Items on the test Items in the test Requires
have to be read are in the form of movement of
and written symbols, pictures, objects from their
(responded by etc. No language respective places
participant); Use is used. in a particular
of language order
Thus literacy is
Thus literacy is not required to
required to take take non-verbal
verbal tests tests
TYPES OF TEST- On the Basis of Mode of
Administration
INDIVIDUAL TESTS GROUP TESTS
Administered by the researcher to Administered to large number of
one person at a time persons at the same time
In these tests the researcher In the group tests, the instructions
administers the test face to face, and about answering the items, etc, are
remains seated before the test taker , written on the test, which the test
and notes down the responses taker reads and answers the
questions accordingly.
The test administrator explains the
instructions to the entire group
ADVANTAGE- Important way of getting
responses from the children, and ADVANTAGE- Easy to administer. Less
from those who do not know the time consuming.
answers
DISADVANTAGE- Respondents may not
DISADVANTAGE- Time Consuming be motivated enough to answer the
questions and may give fake
responses
TYPES OF TEST- On the Basis of Mode of
Administration
SPEED TEST POWER TEST
Time limit for the test Assesses the underlying
ability (or power) of the
Evaluates individual on the individuals by allowing them
basis of time taken to sufficient time (No time
answer the questions limit)
accurately.
Items or are Questions
All the items are of same arranged in order of
level of difficulty increasing difficulty.
CASE STUDY METHOD
For in-depth analysis
Getting narratives or detailed information
Cases can provide critical information or new learning on less
understood phenomenon
Cases can be taken of-
1. Individuals (For certain attributes or characteristics)
2. Group of Individuals (Having some commonalties)
3. Institutions
4. Specific Events, etc.
Multiple methods used to collect information- Interviews, Observation,
psychological tests, etc.
Data (Information) collected from a number of respondents associated
with the case.
DATA ANALYSIS: QUANTITATIVE METHOD
Analysis of quantitative data- scores, ratings, rankings,
etc.
Quantitative method- “ Converts the psychological
attributes into quantity (numbers)”
Objective interpretations
Use of norms- for comparison
Use of statistical tools or methods:
- Methods of central tendency (Mean, Median, Mode)
- Methods of variability (range, quartile deviation, standard
deviation)
- Coefficients of correlation, etc
DATA ANALYSIS: QUALITATIVE METHOD
Analysis of qualitative data- verbal reports, narratives or
life stories, photographs, interview responses, observation
reports/ field reports, audio-video records, personal diaries
etc.
Qualitative methods- “evaluates or attempts to
understand human experiences without reducing it into
numbers or statistics”
Subjective interpretations
Methods used:
1. Narrative Analysis
2. Content (thematic ) Analysis
LIMITATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY
1. Lack of true zero point
2. Relative nature of psychological tools
3. Subjective interpretation of qualitative data
ETHICAL ISSUES
1. Voluntary Participation
2. Informed Consent
3. Debriefing
4. Sharing of Results
5. Confidentiality of Data Source