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Psychological Testing and Assessment 8th edition by Ronald Jay Cohen
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Ronald Jay Cohen | Mark E. Swerdlik | Edward D. SturmanPsychological Testing
and Assessment
An Introduction to Tests and Measurement
E ighth Edition
, Psychological Testing and Assessment: A Timeline Spanning 2200 B.C.E to the Present the
cor
var
Note: This is a brief, decidedly noncomprehensive overview of [Rational Psychology] (1734), which anticipate psychology inn
historical events perceived important by the authors. Consult as a science. A student of Gottfried Leibniz, von Wolff also
other authoritative historical sources for more detailed and elaborated on Leibniz’s idea that there exist perceptions 187
comprehensive descriptions of these and other events. below the threshold of awareness, thus anticipating Freud’s Wi
2200 B.C.E. notion of the unconscious. psy
sci
Proficiency testing is known to have been conducted in China. 1780 As
The Emperor has public officials evaluated periodically. Franz Mesmer “mesmerizes” not only Parisian patients but cal
1115 B.C.E. some members of the European medical community with de
his use of what he once referred to as “animal magnetism” str
Open and competitive civil service examinations in China
to effect cures. Mesmerism (or hypnosis as we know it today) rea
are common during the Chang Dynasty. Proficiency is tested
would go on to become a tool of psychological assessment;
in areas such as arithmetic, writing, geography, music, 188
the hypnotic interview is one of many alternative techniques
agriculture, horsemanship, and cultural rites and ceremonies. He
for information gathering.
400 B.C.E. Ex
1823 no
Plato suggests that people should work at jobs consistent
with their abilities and endowments—a sentiment that will be The Journal of Phrenology is founded to further the study of Hi
echoed many times through the ages by psychologists, human Franz Joseph Gall’s notion that ability and special talents are pro
resource professionals, and parents. localized in concentrations of brain fiber that press outward. no
Extensive experimentation eventually discredits phrenology, eff
175 B.C.E. and the journal folds by the early twentieth century. By the 189
Claudius Galenus (otherwise known as Galen) designs mid-twentieth century, evaluation of “bumps” in paper
experiments to show that the brain, not the heart, is the seat profiles would be preferable to examination of bumps on the Am
of the intellect. head for obtaining information about ability and talents. me
pu
200 1829 In
The so-called Dark Ages begin and society forces science to In Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, English go
take a (temporary) backseat to faith and superstition. philosopher James Mill argued that the structure of mental life Ne
consists of sensation and ideas. Mill anticipates an approach its
1484 of
to experimental psychology called structuralism, the goal of
Interest in individual differences centers primarily on which would be to explore the components of the structure wh
question such as “Who is in league with Satan?” and “Are of the mind. sup
they in voluntary or involuntary league?” The Hammer of
1848 189
Witches is a primitive, diagnostic manual of sorts with tips
on interviewing and identifying persons suspected of having In Vermont, an accidental discharge of explosives sends a Psy
strayed from the righteous path. three-foot iron rod through the skull of railway construction pu
foreman Phineas Gage, destroying much of the front part of Als
1550 is f
the left side of his brain. With medical intervention, Gage
The Renaissance witnesses a rebirth in philosophy, and German of
survives. However, once viewed as a competent and capable
physician Johann Weyer writes that those accused of being witches see
worker, after the accident he is seen as fitful, irreverent, and
may have been suffering from mental or physical disorders. For Psy
“no longer Gage.” Because his intellect seemed unaffected,
the faithful, Weyer is seen as advancing Satan’s cause. iss
the case was significant for calling attention to the role of the
1600 brain in personality and its assessment. 189
The pendulum begins to swing away from a religion- 1859 Alf
dominated view of the world to one that is more philosophical the
and scientific in nature. The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species we
by Means of Natural Selection advances the then-radical Int
1700 notion that humans descended from apes. The work raises use
The cause of philosophy and science is advanced with the questions about how animals and humans compare with
writings of the French philosopher René Descartes, the regard to variables such as state of consciousness. Darwin 189
German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, and a group of also writes of natural selection and the survival of the fittest Lig
English philosophers (John Locke, George Berkeley, Dave of the species. These ideas may have greatly influenced Freud, in
Hume, and David Hartley) referred to collectively as “the whose psychoanalytic theory of personality emphasized the Su
British empiricists.” Descartes, for example, raised intriguing importance of instinctual sexual and aggressive urges. Psy
questions regarding the relationship between the mind and the firs
1860
body. These issues would be explored in a less philosophical
and more physical way by Pierre Cabanis, a physiologist. The German physiologist Gustav Fechner publishes 190
For humanitarian purposes, Cabanis personally observed Elements of Psychophysics, in which he explored the way Ch
the state of consciousness of guillotine victims of the French people respond to stimuli such as light and sound. The work to
Revolution. He concluded that the mind and body were so prompts experimentation in the areas of human and animal als
intimately linked that the guillotine was probably a painless perception. an
mode of execution. 1869 190
1734 Sir Francis Galton, half-cousin to Charles Darwin, publishes Alf
Christian von Wolff authors two books, Psychologia Empirica Hereditary Genius, which was noteworthy both for (a) its “m
[Empirical Psychology] (1732) and Psychologia Rationalis claim that genius is inherited, and (b) its pioneering use of me
coh35309_frontendsheet.indd 1
ISBN: 0078035309 Frontendsheet
Author: Ronald J. Cohen Color: 2/c
Title: Psychological Testing and Pages: 2,3
Assessment
,the statistical technique that Karl Pearson would later call measuring intelligence would find a receptive worldwide
correlation. Galton would subsequently make numerous and audience.
varied contributions to measurement with his inventions and 1910
innovations.
How is your handwriting? If you were a student at this time,
1879 you might have had it checked by one of the first standardized
Wilhelm Max Wundt founded the first experimental tests ever—a test authored by E. L. Thorndike. His article
psychology clinic in Leipzig, Germany; psychology is a entitled “Handwriting” (Teachers College Record, volume 11,
science in its own right, not simply a branch of philosophy. issue 2) provides 16 handwriting samples arranged in order
A structuralist, Wundt relies heavily on a tool of assessment of merit.
called introspection (wherein subjects verbally try to faithfully 1912
describe their conscious experience of a stimulus). The
structuralists focus attention on sensory-related abilities and This was the year that the now-familiar term “IQ” (intelligence
reaction time. quotient) came into being. William Stern devised a formula
whereby “mental age” as determined by Binet’s test was the
1885 dividend, the divisor was the testtaker’s chronological age,
Herman Ebbinghaus publishes Memory: A Contribution to and the quotient, multiplied by 100 was the IQ. Although “IQ”
Experimental Psychology, in which he describes his use of remains a fixture in the world’s vocabulary, contemporary
nonsense syllables to research and evaluate human memory. measures of intelligence are no longer devised by such ratios.
His many keen insights on learning (and forgetting) curves Also in 1912, another IQ-related milestone (of sorts): Henry
proves that higher-order mental processes such as memory— Herbert Goddard’s book, The Kallikak Family: A Study in the
not just reaction time or sensory reaction to stimuli—can be Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness, was published. Goddard’s own
effectively assessed. life and controversial career is presented in our Close-up in
1890 Chapter 2.
American psychologist James McKeen Cattell coins the term 1913
mental test in a publication. He would go on to found several Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, the son of an art
publications, most notably Science and Psychological Review. teacher, publishes papers on how analysis of patients’ artwork
In 1921, he formed the Psychological Corporation with the can provide insights into personality. In 1921 his now-famous
goal of “useful applications of psychology.” Also in 1890, monograph, Psychodiagnostics, would evolve into a test that
New York became the first state to assume responsibility for has become an icon for psychological tests in the public
its mentally ill citizens. Related legislation changed the name eye: the Rorschach Inkblot test. Also in 1913, John Watson’s
of so called “lunatic asylums” to state hospitals—the place now-famous Psychological Review article “Psychology as the
where the indigent mentally ill would be afforded medically Behaviorist Views It” becomes known as the “behaviorist
supervised evaluation and treatment. manifesto.” Of course, as the behaviorist views it, behavioral
1892 observation is a key tool of assessment.
Psychiatrist Emil Kraeplin, who studied with Wundt, 1914
publishes research that employed a word association test. World War I serves as a boon to the testing movement since
Also in 1892, the American Psychological Association (APA) thousands of recruits must be quickly screened for intellectual
is founded with 31 members, thanks primarily to the efforts functioning, as well as emotional fitness.
of its first president, G. Stanley Hall. For a fascinating account, 1916
see Samuel Willis Fernberger’s article, “The American
Psychological Association: 1892–1942” in the January 1943 After years of research, Lewis M. Terman, working at Stanford
issue (volume 50) of the Psychological Review. University, publishes the Stanford Revision of the Binet-
Simon Intelligence Scale. This American adaptation and
1895 revision of the test first developed in France would become
Alfred Binet and Victor Henri publish articles calling for widely known as the Stanford-Binet.
the measurement of cognitive abilities such as memory, as 1920
well as other human abilities such as social comprehension.
Interestingly, Binet also wondered aloud about the possible Army Mental Tests, edited by then Majors Clarence S. Yoakum
uses of inkblots to study personality. and Robert M. Yerkes (both psychologists with distinguished
careers), is published by Holt. This edited volume provides in
1896 great detail information about the Army Alpha and Beta tests
Lightner Witmer establishes the first psychological clinic developed during the “great war” at a time “in this supreme
in the United States, at the University of Pennsylvania. struggle [when] it became clear . . . that the proper utilization
Subsequently, in 1907, Witmer founded a journal called of man power, and more particularly of mind or brain power,
Psychological Clinic. Witmer wrote “Clinical Psychology,” the would assure ultimate victory” (p. vii).
first article in that journal. 1926
1904 The College Board sponsors the development of the
Charles Spearman, a student of Wundt at Leipzig, begins Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and administers the test for
to lay the foundation for the concept of test reliability. He the first time.
also begins building the mathematical framework for factor
analysis.
1905
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon publish a 30-item
“measuring scale of intelligence” designed to help identify
mentally retarded Paris schoolchildren. The notion of (continued on inside back cover)
06/04/12 2:58 PM
, Psychological Testing and Assessment
An Introduction to Tests and Measurement
EIGHTH EDITION
Ronald Jay Cohen
RJ COHEN CONSULTING
Mark E. Swerdlik
ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
Edward D. Sturman
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK—PLATTSBURGH
ONLINE LEARNING CENTER
www.mhhe.com/cohentesting8
coh35309_FM_i-xxvi.indd i 29/05/12 10:52 AM
, PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT:
AN INTRODUCTION TO TESTS AND MEASUREMENT, EIGHTH EDITION
Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,
1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020. Copyright © 2013 by The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of
America. Previous editions © 2010, 2005, and 2002. No part of this publication may
be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic
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Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to
customers outside the United States.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cohen, Ronald Jay.
Psychological testing and assessment : an introduction to tests and
measurement / Ronald Jay Cohen, Mark E. Swerdlik, Edward Sturman. — 8th ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-07-803530-2 (alk. paper)
1. Psychological tests. 2. Psychometrics. I. Swerdlik, Mark E.
II. Sturman, Edward. III. Title.
BF176.C63 2013
150.28’7—dc23 2012012933
The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication.
The inclusion of a website does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or
McGraw-Hill, and McGraw-Hill does not guarantee the accuracy of the information
presented at these sites.
www.mhhe.com
coh35309_FM_i-xxvi.indd ii 29/05/12 10:52 AM
, This book is dedicated with love to the memory of Edith and Harold Cohen.
coh35309_FM_i-xxvi.indd iii 29/05/12 10:52 AM
, Contents
Preface xiii
P A R T
I An Overview
1 Psychological Testing and Assessment 1
TESTING AND ASSESSMENT 1
Psychological Testing and Assessment Defined 1
THE TOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT 6
The Test 6
The Interview 9
The Portfolio 10
Case History Data 11
Behavioral Observation 12
Role-Play Tests 14
Computers as Tools 14
Other Tools 17
WHO, WHAT, WHY, HOW, AND WHERE? 18
Who Are the Parties? 18
In What Types of Settings Are Assessments Conducted, and Why? 22
How Are Assessments Conducted? 27
Where to Go for Authoritative Information: Reference Sources 33
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Stephen Finn 5
CLOSE-UP Should Observers Be Parties to the Assessment Process? 20
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS Everyday Accommodations 32
SELF-ASSESSMENT 36
2 Historical, Cultural, and Legal/Ethical Considerations 38
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 38
Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century 38
The Twentieth Century 43
CULTURE AND ASSESSMENT 45
Evolving Interest in Culture-Related Issues 46
Some Issues Regarding Culture and Assessment 51
Tests and Group Membership 55
LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 58
The Concerns of the Public 58
The Concerns of the Profession 66
The Rights of Testtakers 72
iv
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, CLOSE-UP The Controversial Career of Henry Herbert Goddard 48
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Nathaniel V. Mohatt 54
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS Life-or-Death Psychological Assessment 69
SELF-ASSESSMENT 76
P A R T
II The Science of Psychological Measurement
3 A Statistics Refresher 77
SCALES OF MEASUREMENT 78
Nominal Scales 79
Ordinal Scales 80
Interval Scales 81
Ratio Scales 81
Measurement Scales in Psychology 82
DESCRIBING DATA 83
Frequency Distributions 83
Measures of Central Tendency 89
Measures of Variability 92
Skewness 96
Kurtosis 97
THE NORMAL CURVE 98
The Area Under the Normal Curve 99
STANDARD SCORES 102
z Scores 102
T Scores 103
Other Standard Scores 103
CORRELATION AND INFERENCE 106
The Concept of Correlation 106
The Pearson r 107
The Spearman Rho 110
Graphic Representations of Correlation 111
Meta-Analysis 115
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS Consumer (of Graphed Data),
Beware! 88
CLOSE-UP The Normal Curve and Psychological Tests 100
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Benoît Verdon 116
SELF-ASSESSMENT 116
4 Of Tests and Testing 118
SOME ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
AND ASSESSMENT 118
Assumption 1: Psychological Traits and States Exist 118
Assumption 2: Psychological Traits and States
Can Be Quantified and Measured 120
Contents v
coh35309_FM_i-xxvi.indd v 29/05/12 10:52 AM
, Assumption 3: Test-Related Behavior Predicts
Non-Test-Related Behavior 122
Assumption 4: Tests and Other Measurement
Techniques Have Strengths and Weaknesses 122
Assumption 5: Various Sources of Error
Are Part of the Assessment Process 122
Assumption 6: Testing and Assessment Can Be
Conducted in a Fair and Unbiased Manner 123
Assumption 7: Testing and Assessment Benefit Society 123
WHAT’S A “GOOD TEST”? 124
Reliability 124
Validity 125
Other Considerations 125
NORMS 128
Sampling to Develop Norms 129
Types of Norms 135
Fixed Reference Group Scoring Systems 139
Norm-Referenced Versus Criterion-Referenced Evaluation 139
CULTURE AND INFERENCE 142
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS Putting Tests to the Test 126
CLOSE-UP How “Standard” Is Standard in Measurement? 130
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Steve Julius and
Dr. Howard W. Atlas 142
SELF-ASSESSMENT 143
5 Reliability 145
THE CONCEPT OF RELIABILITY 145
Sources of Error Variance 147
RELIABILITY ESTIMATES 150
Test-Retest Reliability Estimates 150
Parallel-Forms and Alternate-Forms Reliability Estimates 151
Split-Half Reliability Estimates 152
Other Methods of Estimating Internal Consistency 154
Measures of Inter-Scorer Reliability 159
USING AND INTERPRETING A COEFFICIENT OF RELIABILITY 160
The Purpose of the Reliability Coefficient 160
The Nature of the Test 161
The True Score Model of Measurement and Alternatives to It 164
RELIABILITY AND INDIVIDUAL SCORES 173
The Standard Error of Measurement 175
The Standard Error of the Difference Between Two Scores 178
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS The Reliability Defense and the
Breathalyzer Test 165
CLOSE-UP Item Response Theory (IRT) 170
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Bryce B. Reeve 174
SELF-ASSESSMENT 180
vi Contents
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, 6 Validity 181
THE CONCEPT OF VALIDITY 181
Face Validity 183
Content Validity 184
CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY 190
What Is a Criterion? 190
Concurrent Validity 191
Predictive Validity 192
CONSTRUCT VALIDITY 198
Evidence of Construct Validity 199
VALIDITY, BIAS, AND FAIRNESS 204
Test Bias 204
Test Fairness 206
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Adam Shoemaker 185
CLOSE-UP Base Rates and Predictive Validity 193
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS Adjustment of Test Scores by Group Membership:
Fairness in Testing or Foul Play? 208
SELF-ASSESSMENT 210
7 Utility 211
WHAT IS UTILITY? 212
Factors That Affect a Test’s Utility 212
UTILITY ANALYSIS 218
What Is a Utility Analysis? 218
How Is a Utility Analysis Conducted? 219
Some Practical Considerations 232
METHODS FOR SETTING CUT SCORES 235
The Angoff Method 236
The Known Groups Method 236
IRT-Based Methods 237
Other Methods 238
EVERYDAY PSYCHOMETRICS Rethinking the “Costs” of Testing—
and of Not Testing 214
MEET AN ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL Meet Dr. Erik Viirre 216
CLOSE-UP Utility Analysis: An Illustration 220
SELF-ASSESSMENT 239
8 Test Development 240
TEST CONCEPTUALIZATION 241
Some Preliminary Questions 241
Pilot Work 243
TEST CONSTRUCTION 244
Scaling 244
Writing Items 251
Scoring Items 260
Contents vii
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