Introduction

Psychological Testing

Psychological testing, also called psychometrics, the systematic use of tests to

quantify psychophysical behaviour, abilities, and problems and to make predictions about

psychological performance. A Psychological test is a standardized measure of a sample of

a person’s behaviour that is used to measure the individual differences that exist among

people. Mostly tests are used as a way of measuring differences between people or

differences in the same person over time. Psychological tests are written, visual, or verbal

evaluations administered to assess the cognitive and emotional functioning of children

and adults (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009).

Psychological testing refers to the administration of psychological tests. A

psychological test is an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior

(Urbina, 1997).

Psychological testing is a standardized procedure for sampling behaviour and

describing it with categories or scores, psychological testing sums up performance in

numbers or classifications (Geogory, 2004).

Psychological tests can be various types; designed to measure different elements

of human brain development. Following are few major categories of the psychological test.

Intelligence Test. Intelligence test is designed to measure an individual’s ability

to understand ideas and words, think in abstract terms, solve problems using different

forms of reasoning, learn from feedback and experience, and process information in

different modalities, such as visually or aurally (Frey, 2018).

Personality Tests. A personality test is a tool used to assess human

personality. Personality testing and assessment refer to techniques designed to measure

the characteristic patterns of traits that people exhibit across various situations (Cherry,

2022).

Attitude Tests. Attitude tests aim at measuring an individual’s emotional,

intellectual, and behavioural tendencies and interests. These tests are measuring and

assessing tools comprised of a large range of tests that not only measure an individual’s

vocational interests and tendencies, but also assess the individual’s attitude in various

situations. The individual’s attitude towards the environment, other people or places is
judged in this kind of test (Joy, 2018)

Neuro-Psychological Tests. The Neuro-psychological tests are usually conducted

when an individual has suffered a traumatic stress or injury. To check the proper

cognitive functioning of the brain, these kinds of tests are conducted (Bhargava, 2020).

Aptitude Tests. An aptitude test is an exam used to determine an individual's skill

or propensity to succeed in a given activity. Aptitude tests assume that individuals have

inherent strengths and weaknesses and have a natural inclination toward success or failure

in specific areas based on their innate characteristics (Kagan, 2021).

Achievement Tests. An achievement test measures how an individual has

learned over time and what the individual has learned by analysing his present

performance. It also measures how a person understands and masters a particular

knowledge area at the present time. Achievement tests are also a type of psychological

tests that measure your ability to comprehend a specific topic, for example, mathematics

Introduction

An achievement test measures how an individual has learned over time and what

the individual has learned by analysing his present performance. It also measures how a
person understands and masters a particular knowledge area at the present time.

Achievement tests are also a type of psychological tests that measure your ability to

comprehend a specific topic, for example, mathematics (Blog, 2013).

Purpose of Achievement Test

The purpose of achievement testing is to measure some aspect of the intellectual

competence of human beings: what a person has learned to know or to do. Teachers use

achievement tests to measure the attainments of their students. Employers use

achievement tests to measure the competence of prospective employees. Professional

associations use achievement tests to exclude unqualified applicants from the practice of

the profession. In any circumstances where it is necessary or useful to distinguish persons

of higher from those of lower competence or attainments, achievement testing is likely to

occur (Ebel, 1965).

Construction of Achievement Test

For constructing achievement test in any school examinee. Following two

questions are gives a way to construct the achievement test.

a. What to measure?
b. How to measure?

a. What to measure involves certain objectives in view that enables to bring accepted

changes in the student’s behaviour when we teach.

b. How to measure involves how to construct an instrument that measures the abilities of

students (Scott, 2010).

Standardization

Standardization is the process of high qualities and deep understanding of

examinee matter. Standardization test specifies the directions for administrating and

scoring the test on different groups of individuals like whom that the test is designed.

Standard content develops the procedure for identical test on individuals in different

places and at different times (Scott, 2010).

According to Kaplan and Saccuzzo (2009), following are the steps for

constructing an achievement test.

1. Planning the Test

● Designing the Test

● Preparation of Blueprint
2. Preparing Preliminary Draft

● Item Writing

● Item Editing

● Pre Try Out

3. The Try Out

4. Item Analysis

5. Preparing the Final Draft

6. Establishment of

● Reliability

● Validity

● Norms

Description of all above steps is described below briefly.

Planning the Test

Planning of achievement test will be carried out with the help of two steps.

Designing the Test. Designing is most important step in the building test.

Designer should be careful about planning and making test successful. He should keep
this in mind that how and what types of questions are used. He has to decide weightage

for different objectives and units in the course. Following points helps designer to design

test in systematic way.

● Identification of objectives

● Measurement of content

● Allotment of time

● Allotment of marks

● Include multiple choice question

● Emphasis on each examinee and area of question

Preparation of Blueprint. After designing preparation of blueprint is the last

stage of the planning of test. Here test constructor put various type of question in

blueprint and allots them marks depending on the time. The tester writes down his

decisions in the form of a blueprint. With the completion of blueprint the remaining

decisions of the design will become the basis for writing the items.

Preliminary draft

Preliminary draft is prepared by following three stages.

as a guide writing this draft. Test conductor should have following points in mind when

he writes items for preliminary draft.

● Each item contains single idea.

● Questions should be clear.

● Simple and easy to understand.

● Double barrelled question should be avoided.

● Arrangement of items should be from simple to complex.

● Subjective question should also be avoided.

Item Editing. Then the item should be edited and reviewed by language teacher

and also by experts of measurement. Language teacher will check the errors in language

and defect in words. By removing defects it is submitting to experts. Experts of

measurement measure the level of achievement of items.

Pre Try Out. The draft is modified and remove the shortcomings of preliminary

draft. In this stage constructer is confident for the usability of test.

The Try Out

essential to have try out of items. This helps in predict how students will work in actual

practices. At the try out stage, the test should be so timed that nearly 90% of the sample

should be able to attempt all the items of the test. The test sheets along with answer sheets

are collected and answer sheets are used for scoring with the help of scoring keys. Keep

following points in mind while testing in sample.

● Proper sitting arrangements.

● Time of administrating the test.

● Total time required for test.

● Proper motivation with the pupil.

Item Analysis

In this stage test constructer examining the responses of respondents in the sample

to each test item. It can also be defined as it is a statistical procedure by which the

appropriate items are selected for the final draft and poor items are rejected. Item analysis

is an analysis of responses made to ‘teacher made tests’ by the pupil in the class.

Final Draft
In the final draft questions should be arranged in such way that easy, average and

difficult and again starts from easy and so on. By doing this student at least go through

whole test because he know that some of remaining questions are easy. When the test is

arranged properly with the help of principles, a clear identity of test is appeared.

Establishment of Reliability, Validity and Norms

With the selection of good items final draft has been prepared and the final step is

the establishment of reliability, validity and norms. These test items administered to a

larger sample.

Reliability. The reliability of a test measures whatever it measure. There are many

methods for computing the reliability of a test and the most appropriate method for

computing reliability of achievement test is Split-half method.

Validity. It is very important aspect of test and it can be determined as the degree

which is capable of measuring achievements and it is design to do so. Valid test is highly

reliable. Validity is measured by four methods.

Face validity
●

Content validity

Concurrent validity

Predictive validity

Norms. It is average score of sample population. These are the level obtained by a

particular group of persons on a test. There are many types of norms like age norms,

grade norms, percentile norms and standard scores.

Method

Participants

50 students of Grade 9 science section were taken from Air Foundation School

PWD, Islamabad. There were 23 girls and 27 boys.

Procedure

Test Construction

A self-made achievement test of 50 multiple choice items was prepared for the
subject of biology. The items were prepared based on the following cognitive domains

1. Knowledge

2. Comprehension

3. Application

4. Analyses

Knowledge. Involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods

and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.

Comprehension. Refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the

individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea

being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest

implications.

Application. Refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete

situations.

Analysis. Represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent

elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the

relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.

Objectives

Form of

questions

(MCQs)

Knowledge

(k)

Understanding

(u)

Application

(app)

Analysis

(analyz)

Grand

total

Topic 1
Introduction

to biology

10

17

Topic 2

Solving a

biological

17

Topic 3
Biodiversity

Total marks

10

26

14

16

50

Test Administration

Students were given instructions to fill in the demographic details and encircle the

correct option, there will be no negative marking and each MCQ carry equal marks. 1

hour was allotted for the test completion.

Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to individual test

items (questions) in order to assess the quality of those items and of the test as a whole.

Item analysis is especially valuable in improving items which will be used again in later

tests, but it can also be used to eliminate ambiguous or misleading items in a single test

administration (Lehmann, 2020).

Item Difficulty.For items with one correct alternative worth a single point, the item

difficulty is simply the percentage of students who answer an item correctly. In this case, it is

also equal to the item mean. The item difficulty index ranges from 0 to 1; the higher the value,

the easier the question. Excel sheet was used to calculate item difficulty index.

Item Difficulty Range

Range

Comments

0-0.20

Very Difficult

0.21-0.40
Difficult

0.41-60

0.61-0.80

0.81-1

Moderate

Easy

Very Easy

Item Difficulty Index

Serial no. Qs no.

Item difficulty

Comments

Q1

0.88

Very Easy

2
Q2

0.58

Moderate

Q3

0.84

Very Easy

Q4

0.42

Moderate

Q5

0.48

Moderate

6
Q6

0.78

Easy

Q7

0.26

Difficult

Q8

0.60

Easy

Q9

0.08

Very Difficult

10
Q10

0.36

Difficult

11

Q11

0.68

Easy

12

Q12

0.62

Easy

13

Q13

0.58

Moderate

14
Q14

0.28

Difficult

15

Q15

0.60

Moderate

16

Q16

0.01

Very Difficult

17

Q17

0.58

Moderate

18
Q18

0.40

Difficult

19

Q19

0.84

Very Easy

20

Q20

0.80

Very Easy

21

Q21

0.58

Moderate

22
Q22

0.38

Difficult

23

Q23

0.14

Very Difficult

24

Q24

0.46

Moderate

25

Q25

0.78

Easy

26
Q26

0.62

Easy

27

Q27

0.64

Easy

28

Q28

0.38

Difficult

29

Q29

0.30

Difficult

30
Q30

0.46

Moderate

31

Q31

0.68

Easy

32

Q32

0.46

Moderate

33

Q33

0.38

Difficult

34
Q34

0.16

Very Difficult

35

Q35

0.22

Difficult

36

Q36

0.42

Moderate

37

Q37

0.60

Moderate

38
Q38

0.56

Moderate

39

Q39

0.48

Moderate

40

Q40

0.38

Difficult

41

Q41

0.58

Moderate

42
Q42

0.74

Easy

43

Q43

0.74

Easy

44

Q44

0.68

Easy

45

Q45

0.34

Difficult

46
Q46

0.48

Moderate

47

Q47

0.58

Moderate

48

Q48

0.20

Very Difficult

49

Q49

0.20

Very Difficult

50
Q50

0.18

Very Difficult

The above bold items were discarded because they were too easy and too difficult.

Item Discrimination

Item discrimination refers to the ability of an item to differentiate among students

on the basis of how well they know the material being tested. Excel sheet was used to

calculate discrimination index.

Item Discrimination Range

Range

Comments

0-0.24

Bad

0.25-0.39

Good

0.40-1
Excellent

Item Discrimination Index

Serial no. Q no.

Item discrimination

Comments

Q1

0.22

Bad

Q2

0.05

Bad

Q3

0.36
Good

Q4

0.60

Excellent

Q5

0.51

Excellent

Q6

0.36

Good

Q7

0.53
Excellent

Q8

0.10

Bad

Q9

-0.08

Bad

10

Q10

0.66

Excellent

11

Q11

-0.25
Bad

12

Q12

0.31

Good

13

Q13

0.17

Bad

14

Q14

0.19

Bad

15

Q15

0.44
Excellent

16

Q16

-0.29

Bad

17

Q17

0.30

Good

18

Q18

0.45

Excellent

19

Q19

0.50
Excellent

20

Q20

0.15

Bad

21

Q21

-0.17

Bad

22

Q22

0.80

Excellent

23

Q23

0.12
Bad

24

Q24

0.04

Bad

25

Q25

0.16

Bad

26

Q26

0.50

Excellent

27

Q27

0.44
Excellent

28

Q28

0.04

Bad

29

Q29

0.46

Excellent

30

Q30

0.52

Excellent

31

Q31

0.37
Good

32

Q32

0.52

Excellent

33

Q33

0.59

Excellent

34

Q34

0.27

Good

35

Q35

-0.09
Bad

36

Q36

0.31

Good

37

Q37

0.44

Excellent

38

Q38

0.50

Excellent

39

Q39

0.51
Excellent

40

Q40

0.79

Excellent

41

Q41

0.58

Excellent

42

Q42

0.37

Good

43

Q43

0.58
Excellent

44

Q44

0.24

Bad

45

Q45

-0.02

Bad

46

Q46

0.10

Bad

47

Q47

0.52
Excellent

48

Q48

0.46

Excellent

49

Q49

0.26

Good

50

Q50

0.12

Bad

The above bold items were discarded due to bad discrimination index.

PROJECTIVE PERSONALITY TESTS

“Rotter’s Incomplete Sentence Blank”

Projective Test

In psychology projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond

to ambiguous stimuli, to evoke responses that may reveal facets of the individual’s

personality by projection of internal attitudes, traits, and behaviour patterns upon the

external stimuli.

Types of Projective Tests

1. Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank test (Rotter & Rafferty, 1950)

2. House tree person test HTP (Buck, 1971)

3. Rorschach Ink Blot Test (Rorschach, 1921)

Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank is a projective psychological test

developed by Rotter and Rafferty (1950). It comes in three forms i.e., school form,

college form, adult form for different age groups, and comprises 40 incomplete sentences

which the examinee has to complete as soon as possible but the usual time taken is around

20 minutes, the responses are usually only 1–2 words long such as "I regret ..." and
"Mostly girls...". the test can be administered both individually and in a group setting

(Rotter et al., 1992).

Purpose

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank is an attempt to standardize the sentence

completion method for the use at college level. Forty stems are completed by the

examinee. These completions are then scored by comparing them against typical items in

empirically derived scoring manuals for men and women and by assigning to each

response a scale value from 0 to 6. The total score is an index of maladjustment (Joy,

2020).

The Sentence Completion Method

The sentence completion method of studying personality is a semi structured

projective technique in which the examinee is asked to finish a sentence for which the

first word or words are supplied. As in other projective devices, it is assumed that the

examinee reflects his own wishes, desires, fears, and attitudes in the sentences he makes

(Rotter et al., 1992).

Scoring
When scoring the responses on the RISB, there is a scoring manual for women

and a scoring manual for men. The scoring manuals go through each individual sentence

stem and provide example responses for each stem. When using the objective scoring

system, the manual makes it very clear that “scoring manuals are to serve as guides to be

followed as closely as possible. When scoring the responses, the scores are put into one of

two main categories. The first being conflict and the second being positive. There are 3

different degrees of these categories, mild, moderate, and strong. Each completion is

ranked from 0 [most positive] to 6 [most conflict]. There are also additional categories for

responses that are neutral in content and omitted/incomplete completions are also

considered in factoring an individual’s score. Once the administrator goes through the

appropriate scoring manual and compares the responses to the example responses, the

administrator adds up the total amount of points that are associated with each response.

This total amount of points is then compared to the measurement’s cut-off scores. An

overall score of 145 is generally seen to be the adjustment cut-off score (Rotter et al.,

1992).

Interpretation
According to missing and incomplete responses, conflict responses, positive

responses or neutral responses, the score is scored on a 7-point ordinal scale (the higher

the score, the higher the degree of maladaptation). The overall score is usually between

80 and 205 (from 0 to 240).

Methods and Results

Apparatus

● Pen/pencil

● Rotter’s Incomplete Sentence Form

● Rotter’s Incomplete Sentence Form scoring manual

Administration

As per the instructions read carefully, RISB was responded, completing the

sentences expressing true feeling.

Self-Analysis

Demographic Details

Name H. A.

Age 21 years
Gender Female

Quantitative Analysis

The total score on Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank is 123 and the cut off score

is 135. So, it shows well-adjusted personality.

Qualitative Analysis

Familial Attitude

A picture of strong relationship to parents is shown having admirable

characteristic. She described her positively in item 11. A mother ------- is so caring. In

35th item my father ------- is so good to me, it shows the closeness and love toward the

father. In item 4, back home ------- tired, which shows the feeling of relaxation in

returning home means a sense of peace and strong contact with family. Familial attitude

is also expressed through item 26. Marriage ------- commitment, which shows positive

attitude toward marital life and may be living good life after getting married.

Social and Sexual Attitude

Social attitude is neutral neither positive nor negative, as described in item 19.

Other people ------- are unpredictable, shows some neutral attitude toward people in the
society. Item 5, I regret ------ being angry. These responses show her impulsivity.

General Attitude

Tendency to adjust in any type of environment is indicated, and the tendency to

think positively as described in item 27 that, I am best ------- when I achieve good grades

shows her strong will power and determination. In general, she is seemed to live a normal

balanced life.

Summary

The overall picture describes a balanced life with positive and strong contact with

family and friends, social attitude and sexual attitude are also satisfied. There were many

items which showed optimistic view and a well adjustable personality in the changing

environment.

INTELLIGENCE TEST

“Raven Progressive Matrices”

Introduction

Intelligence

Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic,
understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning,

creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be described as

the ability to perceive or infer information, and to retain it as knowledge to be applied

towards adaptive behaviours within an environment or context (McCombs & Marzano,

1990).

Intelligence Test

Intelligence testing refers to the theory and practice of measuring people’s

performance on various diagnostic instruments (intelligence tests) as a tool for predicting

future behaviour and life prospects or as a tool for identifying interventions (e.g.,

educational programs) (Resing, 2005).

Types of Intelligence Tests

1.

Wechler Intelligence Test for Children (WISC) (Wechler,1949)

2.

Wechler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) (Wechler, 1955)

3.
Raven Progressive Matrices (Raven,1938)

Raven Progressive Matrices

Raven's Progressive Matrices (often referred to simply as Raven's Matrices) or

RPM is a non-verbal test typically used to measure general human intelligence and

abstract reasoning and is regarded as a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence. It is one

of the most common tests administered to both groups and individuals ranging from 5-

year-olds to the elderly. It comprises 60 multiple choice questions, listed in order of

increasing difficulty. This format is designed to measure the test taker's reasoning ability,

the educative ("meaning-making") component of Spearman's g (g is often referred to as

general intelligence). The tests were originally developed by John C. Raven in 1936. In

each test item, the examinee is asked to identify the missing element that completes a

pattern. All of the questions on the Raven's progressives consist of visual geometric

design with a missing piece. The test taker is given six to eight choices to pick from and

fill in the missing piece. (Mills et al., 1993).

Versions

According to Johnson et al., (1993), There are three forms intended for
respondents of different abilities.

Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices. This is the original test published in

1938. All questions were black patterns on a white background. There were 60 questions

arranged over five sets, within each set the items were presented in increasing

(progressive) difficulty.

Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices. These matrices were designed for

people with general lower ability because of age (old, young) of mentally impaired. It

contains the two first sets from the Standard Matrices with an additional set of 12 items

inserted in between the two. Questions however were primarily presented on a coloured

background to make them visually stimulating.

Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. The advanced form of the matrices

more items (48), presented as one set of 12 (set I), and another of 36 (set II). Items are

presented in black on a white background similar to the standard version, and also

becomes increasingly difficult throughout the test. These items are suitable for adults and

adolescents of above-average intelligence.

Purpose
The standard progressive matrices were designed to measure a person’s ability to

form perceptual relation and reason by analogy independent of language and formal

schooling and may be used with persons ranging from 6 years to adult. (Wilson et al.,

2002).

Result and Methods

Apparatus

1. Pen/pencil

2. Standard Progressive Matrices scale

3. Standard Progressive Matrices Scale scoring manual

Administration

After reading the instructions the right answer in all designs of the standard

progressive matrices were chosen and analysis was done later.

Self-Analysis

Demographic Details

Name

H. A.
Age

21 years

Gender

female

Total score

56

Discrepancies

Percentile

Range

Grade

95th

0 - ±2

Interpretation

IQ score lies above average so, it shows intellectual superiority.