Introduction to Psychological Testing Paper

Introduction to Psychological Testing

There comes a time when individuals have to face a specific test such as school tests, driving test, or even something simple like food tasting test. However, these regular tests we take are different from the psychological testing. There are several different psychological tests that many psychologists, psychiatrists, and school counselors use to determine certain abilities, however each of the tests are used for a specific purpose. Psychological tests come in many forms and shapes. All of these tests are use to measure the performance of the person taking them. Testing takes place in reliability and validity, both are important but noted there could be one and without another. Reliability and validity is important in psychological testing because of the psyche of the human mind that is too complicated to entirely understand.

Define Test

A test consists of different tools used to measure the performance, reliability, validity, or to find as much data as possible of an item. Testing have many different purposes and can also be considered a procedure used for important evaluations of emotional and cognitive functioning about individuals. Some examples of this would be using an intelligence test or personality test on elementary school students to determine if he/she is gifted or to diagnose if someone has psychological disorders. A psychological test is an instrument administered by many different professionals. The results of these tests are used in many ways affecting people everywhere. For example, tests are used to diagnose and treat mental illnesses. Professionals in different fields used tests to determine what medicines to prescribed patience to determine grades for undergraduate students and to selecting individuals for jobs. Psychological tests are written, visual, or verbal evaluation used to assess a variety of mental abilities, including personality, achievement, and neurological functioning. In order for a psychological test to be considered valid it must be contain both reliable and valid.

Major Categories and Uses of Tests

There are five major categories of tests that are applied by professionals in the field of psychology. The five categories are mental ability tests, achievement tests, personality tests, measures of interest and attitudes, and neuropsychological tests are the five major categories. The first categories is the mental ability test, this tests contains a large variety of cognitive functions such as memory, creative thinking, and special visualization of children and adults. The second major category is the achievement tests. This tests attempt to assess children, academic achievement, ability, and intelligence tests may be used often in school placement, in determining the presence of developmental delay or learning disability, in tracking intellectual development, or to identifying giftedness. Mental ability tests are usually used to assess levels of a person's intelligence. The third major category