(PSY 721) ADVANCED TESTS & MEASUREMENTS

syllabus    study guide    assignments     paper    portfolio    grades 
overview of statistics   on-line tests  
Standard Error Computations     in-class test percentiles

Text:

        

 Murphy, K. R. & Davidshofer, C.O. (1998) Psychological Testing: Principles and Applications (5th Ed.) 
Optional:   Tests and Measurement, A Study Guide, Dennis C. Sweeney

 
Reserve: Aiken, Lewis R. (1997) Psychological Testing and Assessment (9th Ed)
Cohen, R. J. & Swerdlik, M. E.(1999) Psychological Testing and Assessment (4th Ed)
Other library resources: Mental Measurements Yearbook, Oscar Buros
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, American Psychological Association


SYLLABUS

EXPECTATIONS
Content
This is a course designed to acquaint students with the theory, ethics, practice, implementation, and interpretation of psychological tests. The focus will be on the ways in which psychological/educational tests are constructed and standardized, validated, and interpreted. We will review typical tests of ability/aptitude, achievement, personality, and interests.
Materials
The course consists of reading, lectures, demonstrations, and discussion. It is your responsibility to keep current on these materials.
Attendance
I do not take attendance in graduate classes. If you miss a class I assume that you will learn the material.
Honesty
Cases of cheating or plagiarism will result in no credit (0) for the assignment or test and an overall failing grade for the course.
Paper
There will be one paper worth thirty points.  It must be typed.  It is due in class on Tuesday, July 29, 2003.
Portfolio
You will be required to assemble a portfolio summarizing ten articles related to testing.  This portfolio is due in installments.  The first five summaries are due June 17; the second five are due July 15. 
Quizzes
There will be frequent quizzes. All quizzes will be announced at least one class in advance. You may drop your lowest quiz score. There may be several tests. Tests will consist of both in-class and take-home problems.
Make Ups
I will drop your first missed quiz as your lowest score.  You may make-up any subsequent test, quiz, homework assignment, or paper, but you will loose one point per day for makeups unless you have a University-approved excuse justifying the delay.  Make-ups must be completed the week you return to class.
Final Exam
There is NO FINAL EXAM
Grades
Your final grade will be calculated on your overall percentage of correct responses to quiz and test items, attendance, and homework assignments. There are no extra credit assignments.
Paper :        30 points
Portfolio :  50 points
Quizzes :    60-80 points
Grade Scale
Grades will be calculated on the following scale:
A 90% and above     B 80 - 89%       F  less than 80%
Office Hours
Hours I will be available to discuss the course, the weather, or any topic of mutual interest at the hours posted above. If these are not convenient, please see me to make an appointment at another time.
Special Needs
If you have special learning needs, please let me know. Students requiring special considerations should get in touch with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities. This office will notify me in writing of the accommodations you need in compliance with 504/ADA. 

ASSIGNMENTS

TOPIC
 ASSIGNMENT
I. Introduction.pdf
A. Course overview
B. Statistical Review
C. What is testing
 Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 1
 Aiken, Chap. 1
  Cohen & Swerdlik Chap. 1
Cohen & Swerdlik Chap. 3 & 4 (pps 130-141)
II. Ethics, Testing, and Diversity.pdf
Cohen & Swerdlik, Chap. 2

Ethical Principles of Psychologists
Code of Fair Testing Practice

QUIZ #1
III. Test Scores: Scales, Norms, & Score Interpretation.pdf
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 5
Aiken, Chap. 4
Cohen & Swerdlik, Chapter 4, pps 116-125
Online Tests

QUIZ #2
IV. Reliability.pdf

 
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 6 & 7
Cohen, & Swerdlik Chapter 5
Aiken, Chap. 5
Standard Error Computations
QUIZ #3
V. Validity, Test Bias.pdf
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 8 & 9

Cohen & Swerdlik Chapter 6
Aiken, Chap. 5
QUIZ #4
VI. Test Design
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chapter 11
Cohen & Swerdlik, Chapter 7, pps 218-231
Aiken, Chapters 2 & 3
VII. Item Analysis.pdf
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 10

Aiken Chap. 4
Cohen & Swerdlik Chapter 7, pps. 232-253
QUIZ #2
VIII. Cognitive-Aptitude Tests.pdf
A. Individual Tests
B. Group Tests
C. Special Tests
D. Issues in ability testing
Murphy & Davidshofer Chap. 2 (pps 20-35), 13, 14, 15

 Aiken, Chap. 7, 8, 9
Cohen & Swerdlik, Chapters 8 & 9
IX. Special Ability Tests.pdf
Aiken, Chapter 9

QUIZ #6
X. Achievement Tests.pdf
Cohen & Swerdlik Chapter 10
Aiken, Chap. 6
QUIZ #7
XI. Personality Testing.pdf
A. Overview
B. Projective Tests
C. Other tests
 
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 2(pps. 39-47) 16

 Aiken, Chap. 11 & 12
Cohen & Swerdlik Chapters 11, 12
QUIZ #9
XII. Interest Testing.pdf

A.  Stong Vocational Interest Inventory
B.  Kuder Occupational Interests Survey
C.  CAI
D. Self Directed Search
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chap. 2 (pps.35-39) &16
Aiken Chap. 10
Cohen & Swerdlik pps 650-654
QUIZ #10
XIII. Applied Testing
A.  Interviewing
B.  Integrating /Using Test Results
Murphy & Davidshofer, Chapters 18-20
QUIZ #11

 

PAPER

Description
Length

  6 to 8 pages
Format  

 Typed, double spaced, standard English.
Scoring

  30 points.

26 points for content.
  4 points for format, grammar, spelling, etc.
Process

In class you will be divided into working pairs. 

Each person will take four tests relevant to career planning.

1.  A personality test
2.  An interests test.
3.  Math and verbal skills test.
4.  Each person will conduct a career planning interview with his/her partner.

On the basis of this information you should write a career assessment paper summarizing the results of the data collected.

Turn your paper in to me on or before class on Tuesday, July 29, 2002
Outline (Model Paper)

Introduction.

Dennis C. Sweeney, Ph.D.
363 Carmell Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15241

July 17, 200x

Mr. XXX YYY
447 Smith Road
Apartment 33
Anyville, PA 15xxx

Dear XXX:

This letter is a report of the career counseling session you and I had this month. At the beginning of the session you told me that you had little direction as to the career you wanted to pursue and did not want to waste either your time or your parents’ money on college if you were not confident as to your career choice. To assist you in making your decision I gave you a series of intellectual, work style, skills, and interest tests. I compared your performance on these tests to undergraduate, liberal arts college students. This letter is a summary of the test results combined with the discussions we have had over the past three weeks.

 
Intellectual skills.

As part of the test battery I gave you a series of tests that focused on your verbal and quantitative skills. These tests can give an estimate of your capacity to complete college and the types of courses in which you would be most comfortable.

While you never were an avid student in high school, your performance on the intellectual skills tests indicates that you have the basic abilities required of a college student. You have a strong vocabulary and express yourself in a direct, articulate fashion. Your verbal reasoning skills are consistent with a person who is practical and pragmatic in reaching conclusions. Your are the sort of person who wants to know the whys and hows of situations. Your basic math skills are quite rusty. You have never been particularly interested in math, and this showed up in your scores on a measure of basic mathematical applications. On the other hand, you have the ability to do better if your applied yourself; your scores on a measure of abstract reasoning fell at the 42nd percentile for college students indicating that you have the capacity to do better. All you need is the motivation. In selecting college courses I would recommend that you focus on those that are pragmatic, direct, and applied in nature. Unless you can the see direct relevance of what you are learning, you will have difficulty maintaining your interest in the course or major.

Work Style

As part of the career counseling battery I gave you a series of personality tests. These tests can be interpreted in terms of how you would approach the job and your work style.

You are a conscientious, reliable, task-oriented person. You like getting the job done and doing it well. You tend to be competitive person, and not satisfied with being second-best. You are a moderately active person. On the job you like getting the work done and can be quite impatient with delays. Socially, you are more laid-back and relaxed. You have a strong sense of personal responsibility. When you make a commitment to do something, you do not avoid it. You are the sort of person to be counted on to get the job done.

Your administrative style is mixed. You like having a number of projects going at once and can become bored when things become too routine and predictable. On the other hand, you are not one who always completes everything he begins. As a consequence, you have number of balls in the air at one time and can let a couple of them fall to the ground when you lose interest in them. You are not someone who is particularly comfortable in situations that require consistent attention to details. You prefer seeing the big picture. In the working world you will need to discipline yourself to set deadlines for completing projects and then having someone remind you of these deadlines.

You have a balanced decision making style. You can be decisive when the situation calls for it, but are not impetuous in this regard. You will be responsive to people in authority and those whom you respect, but are prepared to question situations when you either do not understand or do not agree. You can make decisions on your own. While you do not want someone looking over your shoulder, you can be responsive to guidelines set by others. You are self-confident and have the conviction that your decisions are correct and appropriate. You are not the sort of person who second guesses himself.

Your interpersonal style is mixed. Socially, you tend to be somewhat aloof, picking your acquaintances with care. You tend to be somewhat independent and are not a "joiner". Being a self-sufficient person you are not one who has a great deal of tolerance for others who are overly dependent or who complain. On the job your style is more direct. You can be quite blunt with people who work for and with you and tend to be the person to whom others look for direction.

 

Career Interests.

The career interests tests gave us an indication of the types of careers you would be most interested in. You completed two versions of these tests, one designed for adults in the work force, and another that focused on high school and college students. Since we have discussed the results in detail and you already have several handouts and booklets giving you guidance on your career and interest patterns, I will not duplicate that information here. I will summarize these results and paint your career interests with a broader brush than is found in the materials you already have. Since there was considerable overlap in these two tests, I will discuss their consolidated results.

It is clear that you would be most interested in a career track that involved work with tangible goods or activities. You would not be comfortable in an academic situation unless it was practical and applied. You will like an active job. Being a frank, practical person you would be most content in a career where you could see concrete results from your efforts. Frequently such careers involve physical activity, working outdoors, or working with machinery, tools, and equipment. You are not the sort of person who would be content spending large amounts of time in a passive administrative position.

You like being in control. You would be most comfortable in a career or job track that gave you the opportunity to be in charge and to direct and control others. You do not appear to be motivated to control people for power’s sake, you do have a natural interest in leading, directing and supervising others.

A third characteristic of a career that would meet your interests is one in which you saw your activities being a benefit to others. You have a strong ethical sense and desire to aid, assist, or support others.
Summary

In summary, you would be most comfortable in jobs/careers that had the following characteristics:

  • gave you considerable amount of freedom to operate without close day-to-day supervision.
  • provided you with variety and change.
  • had clear rules and guidelines.
  • had a management structure that you respected.
  • gave you the opportunity to direct, manage, or supervise others.
  • kept you physically active.
  • was clear, direct, and concrete in nature.

You should avoid jobs with the following characteristics.

  • where the results are intangible or in which you had to play an administrative role. For example, you would not be happy in any of the accounting or bookkeeping professions.
  • that kept you at a desk. You would not be interested in headquarters-level jobs that isolated you from day-to-day operations.
  • that held you accountable for administrative details.
  • that was predictable, routine, and passive.

Some of the careers we discussed that would be compatible with your skills, interests, and intellectual make up were any of the public safety professions including police work and firefighting. You would also be a good fit in a small business where the work involved general manufacturing. Your present position as in landscaping has helped you to get a better feel for what it is like to be on your own, and your insights as to the limits of this type of work are accurate. My advice to you is that you do not try to find the one best job. Choose a class of jobs that you are interested in, manufacturing, business, management, public safety and then select a college that has a degree program that would help to prepare you for this career.