Controlling use the Psychological Tests

Controlling use the Psychological Tests
Like any scientific instrument or precision tool, psychological tests must be properly used to be effective. In the hands of either the unscrupulous or the well meaning but uninformed user, such tests can cause serious damage.

There are two principle reasons for controlling the use of psychological tests;
 To ensure that scores are test is given by a qualified examiner and that the scores are properly used
 To prevent general familiarity with the test content.

1. Qualified Examiner
The need for a qualified examiner is evident in each of the three major aspects of the testing situation;
 Selection of the test
For the test to serve its function, an evaluation of its technical merits in term of such characteristics as validity, reliability, difficulty level and norms is essential.
Only in such a way can test users determine the appropriateness of any test for their particular purpose and its suitability for the type of person with whom they plan to use it.
 Administration and Scoring
An adequate realization of the need to follow instruction precisely, as weel as a through familiarity with the standard instructions, is required if the test scores obtained by different examiners are to be comparable or if any one individual’s score is to be evaluated in terms of the publisher norms.
 Interpretation of Scores
The proper interpretation of test score requires a through understanding of the test, the test taker and the testing conditions.
What is being measured can be objectively determined only by reference to the specific procedure through which the particular test was validated.

2. Role of the Test user
Test user is anyone who uses test score as one source of information in reaching practical decisions. The test user may or may not be the examiner who administers and score the test.
Examples of test users are teachers, counselors, administrators in schools systems, and personnel workers in industry or government.
Most criticisms of test are directed, not to intrinsic features of the test, but to misuses of test results by inadequately qualified users. Some misuses stem from a desire for shortcuts, quick answers and simple routing solutions for real life problems.
Time pressure from work overload may encourage reliance on such expedients. The most frequent cause of test misuse is insufficient or faulty knowledge.

3. Security of test content and communication of test information;
Test content clearly has to be restricted in order to forestall deliberate efforts to fake scores.
In other cases, however, the effect of familiarity may be less obvious, or the test may be invalidated in good faith by misinformed persons. In such conditions, the validity of the test as a predictive or diagnostic instrument is reduced.
Ensuring the security of specific test content need not and should not interfere with the effective communication of testing information to test takers, concerned professionals and the general public. Such communication serves several purposes.
1. It tend to dispel any mystery that may have become associated with testing and thereby helps to correct prevalent misconceptions about what tests are designed to do and what their scores mean.
2. It concerns with the technical procedures whereby particular tests were constructed and evaluated; they present the relevant data about reliability, validity and other psychometric properties of the test.
3. To familiarize test takes with testing procedures, dispel anxiety and ensure that each will perform to the best of his ability.
4. The feedback provided to test takers regarding their own performance on any test they have taken.
The dissemination of information about testing is of fundamental importance. There are helpful as well as harmful ways of carrying it out.