PSYC 2017 Psychological Tests and Measurements

Abstract

Course Description: To introduce students to the purpose, goals, methods, uses and ethics of assessment. Course Objectives:

To have students appreciate the uses and abuses of testing. To have them understand that the only acceptable goal for testing is to help the person being tested. To have students appreciate that all testing results have an “error component” and that the goal of test construction, administration, and interpretation is to minimize this. To have students understand the standardization methods used in test development, and their importance for the interpretation of test results. To have students understand the relationship between raw scores and scaled or standard scores on tests, how the latter are constructed and what they mean. To have students understand the properties of the “Normal Curve” and its assumptions, and how they relate to the interpretation of test scores. To have students come to intellectually understand, and also to intuitively appreciate the importance of the concepts of Validity and Reliability, as well as the statistical and non-statistical methods used to establish them. To have students understand the differences between Aptitude Tests, Achievement Tests, and Tests of Personality, Vocational tests, and Tests used for the diagnosis of Mental Disorders. To bring students to appreciate the importance of knowing and understanding Psychological theory and research (e.g., Personality, Cognition) since tests are constructed on the foundations of theory and research