Psychological tests - their development, how they work, why do we need them and how much we can trust them?

Psychological testing came to the fore at the end of the second half of the 19th century. More specifically, in 1879 in Leipzig, when Wilhelm Wundt founded the first experimental-psychological laboratory. Initially, these tests were mainly suitable for mapping certain cognitive functions (e.g. hearing, vision, etc.). Since the beginning, measurement has become an integral part of psychology, and psychological testing is the foundation of virtually all theories, research and studies, as it can draw conclusions on the phenomenon that is being studied. Over time, more and more areas of usage have emerged, tests for specific skills, personality tests, which are often an integral part of clinical trials. The use of tests has appeared in many other areas of psychology (see tests in the world of work).

Test types

From the beginning to these days, we have to ask the question how can we accurately measure and examine certain psychological phenomena? Based on this question, psychological measurements have different types and approaches.

• Initially, self-observation, the method of introspection was used, since we have the most direct experience of our own spiritual phenomena. At first glance this aspect is outstanding, but the self-observation method has many distortions that make the measurement result subjective and difficult to put it into a certain category system, so in most cases we cannot rely solely on results deriving from self-observation.
• To overcome the shortcomings of the introspection method, several other test procedures were used to obtain the most accurate, distortion-free and objective results of psychological phenomena. We can gain a lot of knowledge about many spiritual phenomena by observing behaviour, although the relationships between psychological phenomena and behaviour are very difficult to detect and this makes it difficult to deduct objective conclusions. To solve this problem the psychological experiment was created in which the examined psychological phenomena is generated under strictly controlled artificial conditions, and where the psychological phenomenon is coupled with certain actions or physiological reactions, hereby the psychological phenomenon itself becomes measurable. Psychological tests make up much of the psychological examinations. “Psychological tests are objective and standardized measures of a sample of behaviour at a given time. The results achieved in psychological tests are transformed into quantitative characteristics, i.e. scores using the specific evaluation method, from which using the appropriate norms we can conclude to the general reactions and personality of the individual." There are many types of psychological tests that are used in almost all fields of psychology, e.g. intelligence tests, ability tests, performance tests, creativity tests, personality tests, interest tests, behavioural analysis, neuropsychological tests.

Definiton

"A psychological test is a systematic, but relatively fast method that can predict the subject’s relevant behaviour and his or her psychological phenomena can be placed in a category system or can be measured on a numerical scale."

How accurate are they?

As I mentioned earlier, the question arises at first whether psychological phenomena can be measured at all, and if we can measure them, how we can get the most accurate results. In order to measure objectively, first it is necessary to determine which particular psychological phenomenon can be defined along the lines of a perceivable phenomena, this is called operationalization (e.g., intelligence tests to measure mental abilities). The other important question is how can we measure it accurately? In this section, it is worth mentioning the name of Sir Francis Galton, who contributed significantly to the development of the psychometric discipline. Galton believed that, within a scientific framework everything becomes measurable, it is no coincidence that one of his famous sayings is ''whenever you can count”. Nowadays statistics and psychometrics take a large part of psychology measurement, precisely to make the measurement results as accurate as possible. Besides that, nowadays psychological tests are bound to a strict criteria. Two important indicators of the tests are their reliability and validity. The relationship between validity and reliability is very important for the tests. The validity shows whether the test actually measures what you want to, while reliability shows how consistent the test is in measuring what you want to.

Tests in the world of work

Tests and questionnaires play an important role in the selection process and later in the development of the workforce. SHL Training Academy offers an insight into the complex world of tests that can be used in the world of work with a two day long, practical training. During the training you can learn:

• the usage of skill tests,
• the usage of questionnaires measuring personality, competence and motivation,
• analysis and evaluation of test results,
• the usage of tests to select the most suitable employees.

For details, please visit our website's selection and development with tests page!

Source:

Rózsa, S., Nagybányai, O.N., & Oláh, A. (Eds.). (2006). The basics of psychological measurement.