Psychological Test Dr. Sudip Chaudhuri M. Sc., M. Tech., Ph.D. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Psychological Test Dr. Sudip Chaudhuri M. Sc., M. Tech., Ph.D. (Sc.) (SINP, Cal), M. Ed. M. Sc., M. Tech., Ph.D. (Sc.) (SINP, Cal), M. Ed. CSIR-UGC NET, WBCSC SLET, I.I.T. GATE Assistant Professor-Stage-3 / Reader Gandhi Centenary B.T. College, Habra, India, Honorary Researcher, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata chaudhurisudip@yahoo.co.in

No modern politician was as ready to be criticized as Gandhi

Rating Scale  Rating scales record judgment or opinions and indicates the degree or amount of different degrees of quality which are arranged along a line is the scale. For e xample: How good was the performance? Excellent Very good Good Average Below average Poor Very poor ___|________|_______|_____|_________|_________|_____|____

Attitude Scale  Attitude scale is essential as it attempts to minimise the difficulty of opinionnaire and questionnaire by defining the attitude in terms of a single attitude object. All items, therefore, may be constructed with graduations of may be constructed with graduations of favour or disfavour.

Characteristics of Attitude Scale  It provides for quantitative measure on a unidimensional scale of continuum.  It uses statements from the extreme positive to extreme negative position.  It generally uses a five point scale as we have discussed in rating scale.  It could be standardised and norms are worked out.  It disguise s the attitude object rather than directly  It disguise s the attitude object rather than directly asking about the attitude on the subject.  Examples of Some Attitude Scale : Two popular and useful methods of measuring attitudes indirectly, commonly used for research purposes are:  Likert‘s method of summated ratings.  Thurstone Techniques of scaled values.

Likert‘s method of summated ratings  The Likert scale assigns a scale value to each of the five responses. All favourable statements are scored from maximum to minimum i. e. from a score of 5 to a score of one or 5 for strongly agree and so on 1 for strongly disagree.  The negative statement or statement apposing the proposition would be scored in the opposite order . e. from a score of 1 to a score of 5 or 1 for strongly agree and so on 5 for strongly disagree. The total of these scores on all the items measures a respondent‘s favourableness towards the subject in question. It a respondent‘s favourableness towards the subject in question. It a scale consists of 30 items, Say, the following score values will be of interest: 30x5=150 Most favourable response possible 30x3= 90 A neutral attitude 30x1= 30 Most unfavourable attitude  It is thus known as a method of summated ratings. The summed up score of any individual would fall between 30 and 150. Scores above 50 will indicate a favourable and scores below go an unfavourable attitude.

Thurstone Technique  Thurstone Technique is used when attitude is accepted as a uni-dimensional linear continuum  The technique is also known as the technique equal appearing intervals  Tabulations are made which indicate the number of judges who placed each item in each category  The next step consists of calculating cumulated  The next step consists of calculating cumulated proportions for each item and ogives are constructed  Scale values of each item are read from the ogives, the values of each item being that point along the baseline in terms of scale value units above and below which 50% of the judges placed the item. It we‘ll be the median of the frequency distribution in which the score ranges from 0 to 11.

Projective Personality Tests

The Projective Techniques Projective tests allow the examinee to respond to  vague stimuli with their own impressions Assumption is that the examinee will project his  unconscious needs, motives, and conflicts onto the neutral stimulus Word association tests, inkblot tests, sentence  completion tests, storytelling in response to pictures, etc.

The Projective Techniques (cont.)  Three features: Disguised: no face validity - Global: the whole personality - Reveals unconscious aspects of personality - - Types: Inkblot: Rorschach - Picture interpretation: TAT -

The Rorschach Inkblot Test  The Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most commonly used projective test  In a 1971 survey of test usage, it was used in 91% of 251 clinical settings survey 91% of 251 clinical settings survey  It is one of the most widely used tests that exists  It is widely cited in research

What is the Rorschach?  The stimuli were generated by dropping ink onto a card and folding it  They are not, however, random: the ten cards in the current test were hand-selected out of thousands that Rorschach generated  Ten blots – 5 black/white, 2 red/gray (II & III) and 3 color (VIII – X)  Thought to tap into the deep layers of personality and bring out what is not conscious to the test taker  The following are the inkblots

Administering the Rorschach  The test is usually administered with as little instruction and information as possible  The tester asks 'What might this be? and gives no clues or restrictions on what is expected as a response  Anxious subjects often do ask questions, and vague answers  Anxious subjects often do ask questions, and vague answers are offered  Some advocate sitting beside the subject to avoid giving clues by facial expression  If only one response is given, some hint to find more may be offered: "Some people see more than one thing.“

Administering the Rorschach  The cards are shown twice:  The first time responses are obtained - free association phase association phase  The second time they are elaborated – inquiry phase

Rorschach (cont.) Exner’s Comprehensive Scoring System 1. Location - W = whole (intellectual potential) - D = subdivisions (common sense) - Dd = details (compulsive tendencies) - Dd = details (compulsive tendencies) - DW (confabulated detail) 2. Content (i.e., general class to where response belongs) - people, part of a person, clothing, animal, part of an animal, nature, anatomical

Rorschach (cont.) 3. Determinants (i.e., specific property of the blot) - F = shape/outline (rational approach) - M = movement (imagination) - C = color (emotional reactions) - C = color (emotional reactions) - Y = shades of grey (depression) 4. Form Quality 5. typical vs. unusual response 6. time

Rorschach (cont.)  norms = unrepresentative  inter-rater reliability  test-retest reliability  construct validity  criterion validity criterion validity

Psychometric Properties of the Rorschach  The Rorschach is a popular test, however, it has been plagued by low reliability and validity.  Obviously, it is difficult to measure any of the usual psychometric properties in the usual way  Validity and reliability are usually low because of the open-ended multiplicity of possibility that is allowed and by the lack of universally-accepted standardized instructions, administration protocol, and scoring procedure  Reliability studies that have been done find r- values varying from 0.1 to 0.9

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)  Construct a story about what you see on the following picture Describe: - what led up to the scene - what is happening - what is happening - what the characters in the story might think or feel - how the story will end

Thematic Apperception Tests  The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 30 grayscale pictures + one blank for elicitation of stories – each contain a dramatic event or critical situation  Most subjects see 10-12 cards, over two sessions  Based on Murray's (1938) theory of 28 social needs (sex, affiliation, dominance, achievement, attitudes etc.)  People would project into their story their needs  Attention is paid to the protagonist in each story and his/her environmental stressors  Many variations on this 'story-telling' test exist

TAT (cont.)  Administration: not standardized Not the same 20 cards - Not the same order - Seldom 2 sessions Seldom 2 sessions - - Instructions differ - • Scoring is Minimal • Low Reliability & Validity

TAT – scoring/interpretation Scoring  Congruence with picture stimuli  Conformity with directions  Conflict Psychometric properties: Psychometric properties:  internal consistency is low;  high reliability but diminishes with time, 2 months, r = .80; 10 months r = .50;  Inter-rater reliability vary with studies: range .3 to .9