1. During World War II the U. S. Office of Strategic Services ( OSS), a predecessor to today's Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA), used a variety of procedures and measurement tools- psychological tests among them- in selecting military personnel for highly specialized positions involving espionage, intelligence gathering, and the like. Why aren't these methods used today?
2. What is a psychological test?
3. The APA Committee on Psychological Tests and Assessment discussed the pros and cons of Computer Assisted Testing (CAT). What is one main advantage over the traditional paper and pencil tests?
4. What types of settings are assessments conducted?
5. The American Psychological Association (APA) has addressed ethical issues related to assessment in the APA Code of Ethics in your learning modules. Name one of the general principles that they outlined.
6. What are the four scales of measurement?
7. How would you explain correlation?
8. Name two reliability estimates?
9. What is the relationship between reliability and validity?
10. What is incremental validity?
11. What is the difference between a positively skewed distribution and a negatively skewed distribution?
12. What is commonly used as a measure of central tendency?
13. Correlation is the degree to which 2 things are connected. Name two variables that are positively correlated?
14. Give an example of convergent evidence of construct validity.
15. Name a few kinds of cut scores?
16. What is criterion referenced testing?
17. What is utility analysis?
18. What formula calculates the dollar amount of a utility gain under specific conditions?
19. How does sampling effect reliability?
20. What is the standard error of measurement?
21. What is an advantage of using a liker-type response format when creating a test?
22. What is the disadvantage of reporting a raw score?
23. What effect is the type of cognitive bias in which an overall impression of a person influences how one feels and thinks about his or her character?
24. What are some different types of psychological assessments?
25. What did the military do in order to measure the intellectual ability of recruits?
Essay Questions
The essay questions below are worth 7 points each.
26. There are some very clear cut and distinct rights that all participants of psychological tests are privy to. Discuss the importance of adhering to these rights.
27. It can be an arduous task to create a test that measures what is intended. What are the traits of a properly created test?
28. What was important in the ruling of Hobson v. Hansen (1967)? What did this change for future creation of psychological assessments and testing.
29. There are many ethical guidelines that govern the professional behavior of psychologists that specialize in testing and assessment. Pick 3 and discuss them.
30. Consider issues of culture and assessment reviewed in the course thus far. Identify and discuss some of these issues of culture as related to psychological assessment and rights of test-takers with someone of a different culture, language background, and ability.