The Handy Psychology Answer Book. Lisa J. Cohen

questionnaire.

       A self-report questionnaire is a paper and pencil test on which the subject answers a series of questions about one or more psychological traits. These tests are quick and easy to develop, administer, and score, but they are limited by the possibility of inaccuracies in the subject’s self-report.

       Clinician-administered questionnaires are also paper and pencil tests but the clinician asks the subject the questions. These questionnaires allow the clinician to make the final scoring decision based on the subject’s responses to each question.

       Interviews, like questionnaires, involve a series of questions administered to the subject, but the interviewer has room to follow up each question with verbal probes to obtain more information or clarify responses. The interviewer has more leeway to modify the questions or add new questions than on paper and pencil questionnaires.

       Projective tests, like the thematic apperception test (TAT) or the Rorschach, ask the subject to complete a task (e.g., to tell a story based on a picture), which is intended to reveal characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The subject, however, is unaware of the information being revealed.

       In cognitive tests, the subject completes various tasks that involve intellectual skills, like memorizing a list of words or arranging blocks to match a pattern.

       Sensory or motor tasks likewise measure sensory skills, such as sensitivity to touch, or motor skills such as visual-motor coordination.

      Tests in these last three categories are often called objective tests because they involve the assessment of objective behavior.

      How are tests and measurements developed?

      A good deal of work goes into test construction. First, the construct must be defined. What exactly are you trying to measure? Then, taking the most typical case of a self-report questionnaire, the items must be selected. Next, the test must be administered to several samples of people to prove that it is a consistent and reliable measure of the construct it is intended to measure. Two critical concepts in test construction are reliability and validity.

      What are some examples of test questions that measure emotional or behavioral traits?

      The two excerpts listed below give sample items from a psychological test measuring various emotional and behavioral traits. The first group of questions measures anger regulation and the second group of questions measures sustained initiative. The questions can either be read aloud by the examiner in an interview format or given to the subject to fill out as a self-report questionnaire. The answers are translated into numbers, which can then be added together to form a total score.

      How frequently have any of the statements listed below been true for you in the past five years?

      ____ Sometimes I can be really irritable and other times nothing rattles me.

      ____ There are times when the least little thing makes me furious.

      ____ I can be really furious about something and then suddenly feel calm and back to normal.

      ____ I hold onto a grudge for a long time.

      ____ When I’m angry I cannot easily control my temper.

      Some people have a difficult time getting themselves to do things they either should do or would like to do. Over the past five years, how frequently have any of the following statements applied to you?

      ____ I’ve had a hard time getting around to things I have to do.

      ____ I’ve had a hard time finishing things I’ve started to do.

      ____ Although I’m motivated and excited when I start a project (job, hobby, school), I get distracted and bored easily.

      ____ I give up on things when I get frustrated or bored.

      ____ I arrive at work more than half an hour late.

      ____ I arrive at work more than an hour late.

      What does it mean to say a test is reliable?

      The reliability of a test refers to its ability to measure a given trait consistently. If the outcome of a measure varies each time it is applied, the measure is not reliable. There are several forms of reliability, depending on the format and purpose of the test. Inter-item consistency means that the individual items of a test are inter-correlated, or they are well related to each other. This form of reliability is used with questionnaires in which multiple items are used to rate one trait. Test-retest reliability measures how well an initial administration of a test correlates with a repeated administration. This is only useful if the trait measured is unlikely to change much over time. Inter-rater reliability is used with semi-structured questionnaires and other instruments in which the rater must use complex subjective judgments in the scoring. An instrument has inter-rater reliability when two or more raters rate the same material the same way.

      What does it mean to say a test is valid?

      The validity of a test reflects the degree to which it is measuring what it says it is measuring. Validity is often measured by correlation with a similar measure of the same construct. For example, a depression rating scale could be correlated with another questionnaire that measures depression. Differences across groups can also be used to establish validity. Does a group of depressed psychiatric inpatients score higher on the depression scale than a group of healthy subjects? For that matter, do the depressed patients score higher on the depression scale than a group of inpatients with schizophrenia? With convergent validity, measures of similar constructs will rate the same material similarly. Two measures of depression should be positively correlated. With divergent validity, measures of different constructs will rate the same material differently. A measure of depression should not be well correlated with a measure of happiness.

      Can you have reliability without validity?

      A test can be reliable without being valid. For example, a ruler is a reliable measure. It will always measure a given distance the same way. However, it is not a valid measure of depression, as the outcome of its measurements, no matter how consistent, have no relationship to depression. Although a test can be reliable without being valid, it cannot be valid without being reliable. If a test is inconsistent in its measurements, we cannot say it is measuring what it is intended to measure and, therefore, it is considered invalid.

      What is the Rorschach inkblot test?

      The Rorschach inkblot test is a well-known projective test. In fact, at one time it was so well known that it was often portrayed in the popular media, generally as a mysterious and somewhat menacing test that could magically see into people’s souls. The Rorschach consists of ten cards with images of inkblots, some in black-and-white and some with color. These blots were created by Herman Rorschach (1884–1922), who first published the test in 1922. Just as people see images in clouds, subjects see images in the inkblots and they are asked to identify and describe these images. The responses are then coded for their content and form, which are seen as reflective of the subject’s own mental processes. There are no set answers to this test; the subject must project his or her own thought processes onto the blot in order to make sense of it. The Rorschach is therefore called a projective test. Perhaps because Herman Rorschach originally developed his test with inpatient schizophrenics, this test is particularly sensitive to psychotic thought process.

      What criticisms have been leveled at the Rorschach?

      Although numerous scoring systems for the Rorschach have been developed since its original publication in 1922, in its