What Are the Complexities of Developing a Psychological Test?

Many factors go into developing a psychological test. It has to have validity, be reliable, be internally consistent and have the right scale sensitivity.
    • Psychological tests have many components

    Face Validity

    • According to the American Psychological Association website, validity is when a test measures what it is supposed to. Face validity is when a test outwardly appears to measure what it is intended to measure.

    Criterion-related Validity

    • Criterion-related validity means that a psychological test measuring a certain trait should produce similar (correlated) results to other psychological tests measuring the trait.

    Construct Validity

    • Construct validity is when a test asks only about what it is supposed to measure.

    Internal Consistency

    • Internal consistency is the property in which questions within a psychological test measure the same thing as each other and are weighted correctly within the total score.

    Number of Questions

    • A test should have enough questions to cover multiple aspects of a trait or disorder, without being overwhelmingly long.

    Scale Sensitivity

    • It is important that psychological test have a sensitive enough scale

      A more sensitive scale will have more options for question answers and gather more specific information, while a less sensitive scale will have fewer options and gather less detailed information (e.g. one to 10 scale versus one to four scale).

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