This document provides an overview of psychological assessments. It defines psychological tests and their purposes which include classification, rehabilitation, diagnosis and treatment planning, self-knowledge, program evaluation, and research. It describes the historical development of key tests and discusses standards for assessing reliability and validity. Several commonly used personality tests are also outlined, including the MMPI-II, 16PF, NEO-PI-R, and TCI.

1. BASICS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENTS

2. • “A psychological test is a standardized
instrument to measure objectively any one or
more aspects of a total personality by means of
samples of verbal or non-verbal responses or by
means of other behaviour.” Freeman (1965)
• A psychological test is a standardized procedure
to measure quantitatively or qualitatively one or
more than one aspect of trait by means of a
sample of verbal and non-verbal behavior.
Singh(1997)

3. HISTORICAL VIEW
• Wilhelm Wundt- established the first
psychological laboratory in 1879, in Leipzig,
Germany
• In 1905 Binet and Simon invent the first
modern intelligence test.
• 1917 Robert Woodworth develops the personal
data sheet, the first personality test

4. NEED OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST
There are six major uses of psychological test;
Gregory(2004).
• Classification: It encompasses a variety of
procedures:
a) assigning a person to one category rather than
other.
b) placement and screening
• Rehabilitation- Psychological testing has a mojor
role in rehabilitation. It is the process of assisting
someone to improve and recover lost function after
an event, illness or injury that has caused functional
limitations.

5. • Diagnosis and treatment planning: Diagnosis
consists of task of determining the nature and
source of person’s abnormal behavior and
classifying the behavior pattern within an
accepted diagnosis system for best choice of
treatment.
• Self knowledge: psychological tests can be a
potent source of self knowledge
• Program evaluation: systematic evaluation of
educational and social programs.
• Research: It plays a major role in the both
applied and theoretical branches of behavioral
research

6. 1. Problem Identification- Problem Identification is the most
common use of psychological assessment.).
2. Problem Clarification- Psychological assessment can often assist
in the clarification of three most important types of information,
the severity of the problem, complexity of the problem & degree
to which the problem impairs the patient’s ability to function in
one or more life roles.
3. Identification of important patient characteristics-
Identifying patient characteristics reveals the strengths and
weaknesses of the patient that helps in achieving the therapeutic
goals.
4. Monitoring of progress - The information from repeated
assessment during the treatment process can help the clinician to
determine, if the treatment plan is appropriate for the patient at a
given point of time or no

7. • Technical Aspect.
1. Standardization- Standardization refers to uniformity of procedures in
administering and scoring the test (Anastasi, 1997). Thus a test is said to be
standardized if test administration procedures, materials, instructions,
recording and scoring are as constant as possible at all
times(Korchin,1999).
•
1. Norms- Norms refer to the average performance of a representative
sample on a given test. Test developers are advised to publish norms
describing the frequency distribution of scores, obtained in as broad
sample as possible of the relevant population (APA, 1974).
•
1. Objectivity- A test is said to be objective when the administration, scoring,
and interpretation are independent of the subjective judgment of the
particular examiner It means the assessment must be free from subjective
element so that there is complete interpersonal agreement among experts
regarding the meaning of the items and scoring of the test. (Anastasi,
1997).

8. 1. Reliability- The reliability of an assessment refers to its degree of stability,
consistency, predictability, and accuracy (Groth & Marnat, 2003). It refers to self
correlation of the assessment which shows the extent to which the results obtained
are consistent when it is administered once or more than once on the same sample
with a reasonable time gap. There are four types of reliability:
•
 Split Half Reliability is known to be the best technique in which the test is given
only once. The items are split in half, and the two halves are correlated. To
determine it, the test is often split on the basis of odd and even items. The
reliability coefficient is the correlation of scores obtains by same person on the two
halves (Groth & Marnat, 2003).
 Interscorer Reliability is one which is obtained by scoring of a test by more than
one expert of a single client (Groth & Marnat, 2003).
 Test-Retest Reliability which is determined by administering the test and then
repeating it on a second condition. The reliability coefficient is the correlation of
scores obtains by same person on the two different administrations (Groth &
Marnat, 2003).
 Alternate Forms Reliability is determined by administering the parallel forms of the
test on a person. The reliability coefficient is the correlation of scores obtains by
same person on the two parallel forms (Groth & Marnat, 2003).

9. 1. Validity- Validity indicates the extent to which the test measures what it
intended to measure and should also produce information useful to clinician
(Groth & Marnat, 2003). It is of three types-
 Content Validity which must be the first concern of the test developers. It
refers to the representativeness and relevance of the assessment instrument to
the construct being measured.
 Criterion Validity also known as Empirical Validity is determined by comparing
test scores with some sort of performance on an outside measure. It is
further divided into Concurrent Validity and Predictive Validity.
 Concurrent Validity refers to measurements taken at the same, or
approximately the same time of the test administration (Groth & Marnat,
2003). To determine concurrent validity, test scores and criterion are obtained
simultaneously (Gregory, 2004).
 Predictive Validity refers to outside measurements that were taken some time
after the test score were derived (Groth & Marnat, 2003).
 Construct Validity refers to the extent of measurement to which the test
measures a theoretical construct or trait (Groth & Marnat, 2003).

10. CLASSIFICATION OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Psychological
test
Intelligence test Aptitude test
Neuropsychological
inventory
Achivement &
motivation Personality test
Creativity test
Group test
Individual test

11. • Self Report Inventory and questionnaire
commonly known as personality inventories or
paper pencil tests in which the individual
describes his/her own feelings, environment,
and reaction of others towards him/her. It may
even be administered on a computer

12. • EYSENCK’S PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRRE
(EPQ) :
It was developed by Eysenck and Eysenck
(1975) to measures 3 dimensions: Extraversion
and Introversion (E), Neuroticism and Stability
(N), Psychoticism and Super ego function (P) of
a person. It contains 19 items (Eysenck &
Eysenck, 1975).

13. Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory- III
(MCMI -III)
• It was developed by Theodore Millon in 1977.
• It is designed for adult 18 year and older It focuses
on personality disorder along with symptoms that
are frequently associated with the disorders.
• The current version is MCMI-III is composed of
175 items and 28 scales divided into the categories
of: Modifying Indices, Clinical Personality Patterns,
Severe Personality Pathology, Clinical Syndromes
and Severe Syndromes (Millon , 1977).

14. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -II
(MMPI-II)
• It is developed by Hathaway and McKinley in 1940.
• It measures the surface traits of an individual. Its re-standardization
was done by James N.Butcher, John R. Graham, Yossef , at University
of Minnesota Press in 1989 and known as MMPI-II (Graham, 2000).
• The validity scales of MMPI-II are VRIN, TRIN,F ,FB,FP,L,K and S.
• Clinical scales are Hypochondriasis(H), Hysteria(Hs), Depression(D),
Mania(Ma), Paranoia(P), Schizophrenia(Sc), Psychesthenia(Pt), Social
introversion(Si), Psychopathic deviate(Pd), Masculinity- Feminity(Mf).
• Two coding type namely Hathaway and Welsh are there. It has been
widely used for detection of malingering, personality disorders,
aggression etc.
• The reasons of revision are inadequacy of sample, item content, sexist
language, poor grammar and punctuation and in order to enhance the
validity of this tool new validity scales have been added in MMPI- II.

15. • Multiphasic Personality Questionnaire
(MPQ)-This test is adapted by H.N. Murthy in
1964, for Indian population. It contains 100
items which are divided into 9 scales namely
Hysteria, Anxiety, Depression, Mania,
Psychopathic Deviate, Schizophrenia, K- scale,
Repression- Sensitization, Paranoia (Murthy,
1975).

16. Cattell’s 16 PF Test
• :It is developed by Raymond B. Cattell in 1949,
to measure 16 source traits which are also called
16 personality factors.
• Write about forms The test provides scores on
16 primary personality scales and 5 global
personality scales.
• This test is used to generate personality profile
of the individual and is often used to evaluate
employees and to help people select a career.

17. Neo-PI-Revised
• Developed by Costa & Mc Crae in the year 1992. Initially
it was designed for use by adults.
• Revised in the year 1992 and made usable for people as
young as 10 years.
• It contains 240 items that assess 30 specific traits (or
facets) 6 for each personality dimension: Neuroticism(N),
Extraversion(E), Openness to Experience(O),
Agreeableness(A), Conscientiousness(C).
• The items are answered in a 5- point Likert scale, ranging
from strongly agreeable to strongly disagreeable.
• There are two forms: parallel self report (Form S) and
observer rating (Form R).

18. Temperament and Character
Inventory (TCI)
It is developed by Robert Clonninger et al. in 1994. It
is based on biosocial model of personality.
It has four temperament dimensions:- Novelty
Seeking, Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and
Persistence and three character dimensions: Self-
Directedness, Self –Transcendence, Cooperativeness,
for age group between 7-14 years.
Four validity scales: Runs, Rarity, True and Like-
unlike and alternate versions of self report, informant
ratings and interviewer’s ratings are there (Clonninger
et. al, 1994).

19. Personality tests for Children
1. Children Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) -
It is developed by Raymond B. Cattell and
Rutherford B. Porter (1968) for age range 8 to12
yrs having two part A and B each of 70 items. It
measures 14 Primary Factors and 4 Secondary
factors (Cattell & Porter, 1968).

20. Children Self Report and Projective
Inventory(CSRPI)
• It was developed by Robert L Ziffer and
Lawrence E Shapiro(1992) in which sentence
completion, projective story cards, drawing task,
critical items are there to assess the conflict areas
of a child( Ziffer & Shapiro, 1992).

21. Children’s Apprerception Test (CAT)
• It is a direct extension of the TAT, given by
Leopard Bellak and Sonya Sorel Bellak in 1961.
It consists of 10 pictures, suitable for children 3
to 10 years of age.
• The preferred version for younger children
(CAT-A) depicts animals in unmistakably human
social setting. A human figure version (CAT-H)
is available for older children (Bellak & Bellak,
1994).

22. • Children Personality Questionnaire
(CPQ)developed by Raymond B. Cattell and
Rutherford B. Porter (1968) for age range 8
to12 yrs (Cattell & Porter, 1968).

23. • Observational Methods- In Observational
Method, the person whose personality traits are to
be observed are put either in structured or
unstructured situations and observations are made
by the observers (Groth & Marnat, 2003).
• Interview- Interview is a face to face interpersonal
situation which has a clear sequence and relevant
themes that helps the interviewer to achieve the
defined goals
• Rating Scale- A rating scale is defined as a
technique through which the observer or rater
categorized the objects, events or persons on a
continuum, represented by a series of continuous
numerals

24. • Conner’s Rating Scale-Revised- (ADHD)
• The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) – The
Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) given by
Thomas M. Achenbach (1991).
• The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)
–The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)
was initially developed by Schopler, Reicher and
Renner in 1971