Series: Psychological Testing (P-2)
Greetings everyone!
I am back with the second part of the series. In my previous article, I explained what a psychological test is by giving its definition and breaking down its components. In this article, I will help you understand its principal characteristics.
Validity:
Validity of a psychological test is the property of a measuring device that it measures or is intended to measure.
(Attention please, if any of the formal definitions sound a bit mechanic, then stay stress-free, as I am here to explain everything in a manner that you will be surprised to see how easy and interesting they are!)
As previously mentioned, if validity is a property then what does a property mean? Actually, property means an attribute, quality, or characteristic of something. And, validity is the property of a measuring device. In psychological testings, measuring devices may come in the form of questionnaires, indexes, scales, inventories and more.
When a measuring device measures exactly what it was designed to measure, we say that it is valid. For instance, if a psychological test was intended to measure intelligence of children and it measured specifically intelligence then it would be appropriate for us to label it as a valid test. Meanwhile, if it failed to do so and instead of intelligence it ended up measuring aptitude of individuals then no wonder why it would rather lose its scope to be acknowledged as a valid test.
Reliability:
Reliability of a psychological test is the consistency of the test score.
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This is such a clear definition that I’ve ever come across in the vast area of psychology. However, if you still have questions about reliability then wait for my next article!
Norm:
Norm of a psychological test can be defined as an average value of test score which is used to analyze and interpret the test score.
Say for example, an algebra test is given to 30 students from 3rd grade. It has 100 items and a correct response will give them +1 score. As the examiners check their copies and finally send us the list of scores of 30 students, our task begins. Test scores are given below:
70,80,60,65,72,88,92,100,40,56,75,87,85,92,86,76,83,82,69,90,88,65,62,75,84,96,91,76,67,00
Let me tell you how to find the average value. First, calculate the sum of the test scores. Finally, divide the sum by the number of test-takers. (In this case, it is 30) I am leaving the calculation for you guys. Do let me know the final value because it would be the norm of the test. But this is not the only way to find the norm of a psychological test. We will discuss different types of norms in details in another article. Stay tuned until then ;)
Lastly, but not the least, we must consider standardization as it is one of the most vital characteristics of a psychological test.
Standardization:
Standardization refers to the uniformity in administration and test scoring.
Which implies that there must be some common steps to be followed whenever they are administered and what a test score means should be clearly defined and same for all.
That is all for today . Hope you had a bliss in reading and most importantly understood everything I said. See you soon!
