American functionalist psychology constituted an effort to model scientific psychology on the successes of English evolutionary theory. In part it was a response to the stagnation of Wundt's psychological research program, which had been grounded in German experimental physiology. In part it was an attempt to make psychology more appealing within…

Reducing the arbitrariness of a metric is distinct from the pursuit of validity, rational zero points, data transformations, standardization, and the types of statistical procedures one uses to analyze interval-level versus ordinal-level data. A variety of theoretical, methodological, and statistical tools can assist researchers who wish to make…

Summarizes issues associated with psychological assessment, concluding that: psychological test validity is strong and is comparable to medical test validity; distinct assessment methods provide unique sources of information; and clinicians who rely solely on interviews are prone to incomplete understandings. Suggests that multimethod assessment…

Describes the American Psychological Association's (APA's) development of the Task Force on Test User Qualifications, explaining the APA's purpose in developing guidelines for the use of psychological tests. Highlights the historical background, the scope of the guidelines, generic knowledge and skills considered important for good test use, and…

The authors comment on the article "The primacy of cognition in schizophrenia," by R. W. Heinrichs. They state that Heinrichs persuasively argued as to the primacy of cognition in schizophrenia by citing an impressive body of evidence in favor of the view that schizophrenia is a complex biobehavioral disorder that manifests itself primarily in…

Results of this study provide strong evidence for the position that social aggressiveness can accurately be considered as a personality trait; that is, peer ratings of aggressiveness describe a recognizable component of a person's behavior which is consistent across situations. (Author)

Examines the issue of validity and values in the scientific method of research, and suggests that researchers must continuously question the premises upon which their research is based. (SB)

Discusses evaluation of tests both in terms of their measurement properties and their potential social consequences. Presents a model for evaluating test validity based on empirical evidence as well as on ethical decisions. Stresses the importance of construct validity as a rational foundation for test predictiveness and relevance; and the…

Children are considered "disturbed" when they behave in ways that are unacceptable to signficant adults in their environment. Diagnosis of such children, however, is more often for administrative purposes than for the purpose of preventing further and more serious disturbance. (Author/GC)

Many psychological tests have arbitrary metrics but are appropriate for testing psychological theories. Metric arbitrariness is a concern, however, when researchers wish to draw inferences about the true, absolute standing of a group or individual on the latent psychological dimension being measured. The authors illustrate this in the context of 2…

Five hundred clinical psychologists were surveyed about their use and opinions of psychological tests. Results showed that both objective and projective tests are used by clinical psychologists of all major therapeutic orientations. (Author)

Information overproduction and the lack of an adequate system for its storage and retrieval have frustrated integrative efforts and hindered orderly progress in the area of psychological testing. Describes a prototype repository system to handle and service the mass of information produced. (Authors)

The present social and political climate is marked by an increasing appreciation of human diversity and of society's need to accommodate such diversity. The social context for testing is thus fundamentally different from that in which standardized testing developed. Testing should now be more concerned with facilitating equal opportunity.…

This article criticizes the generally held assumption that psychological test scores are trait measures. Reasons for the continuing belief in this fallacy, as well as the social consequences of its general acceptance, are discussed. Suggestions for avoiding the test-trait fallacy are made. (EB)

The Internet has significantly changed the way people conduct business, communicate, and live. In this article, the authors' focus is on how the Internet influences the practice of psychology as it relates to testing and assessment. The report includes 5 broad sections: background and context, new problems yet old issues, issues for special…