Social Sciences Psychology

Chapter 6 - Test Construction Study

Chapter 6 - Test Construction

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Terms in this set (30)

The empirical approach to psychological test

development

A- begins with a sound theory

B- relies on the frequency of endorsement of items by
B
selected groups
C- continues to be the major approach to the
construction of personality tests
D- ensures that all items in the test have high face
validity

The first step in constructing a psychological test is to

A- determine the sample size to which the test is

administered
D
B- review the relevant literature
C- identify a likely publisher for the test
D- be clear about the construct or constructs to be
assessed with the test

Psychological tests

A- conform to the highest possible form of

measurement
B- seldom achieve more than a statement about rank
B
order in terms of the
characteristic of interest
C- provide for a true zero in terms of the characteristic
D- invariably specify equal intervals on their
measurement scales
 Because 0°C does not represent the complete absence
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
of heat, the Celsius scale cannot be considered

A A- a ratio scale
B- a reliable scale
C- a random scale
D- a representative scale

The Mental Measurements Yearbook is

A- a catalogue of test reviews

A
B- a classification scheme for mental disorder
C- an encyclopaedia of psychometrics
D- a handbook of good practice in assessment

According to S S Stevens, which of the following is not a

type of measurement?

C A- ordinal
B- interval
C- dichotomous
D- nominal

The model of measurement that underlies many

commercially available psychological tests is

B A- the manifest trait model

B- the weak true score model
C- S S Stevens's measurement types
D- the Guttman model
 A trace line for an item relates
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
A- the outline of the item to the specification of the
construct
B- the inverse of the strength of the trait to item
D
frequency
C- the proportion of items correct to the strength of the
underlying trait
D- the likelihood of endorsement of the item to the
strength of the underlying trait

Item Response Theory is a stricter model for test

construction than classical true score theory in that it

A- specifies the parameters of the trace line

A
B- requires more of the items in the test to conform to
the model
C- uses a steeper trace line
D- includes classical true score theory as a special case

In using Item Response Theory in practice

A- item difficulty is often selected as the focus of interest

A
B- the assumptions of the theory are ignored
C- items of equal difficulty are sought
D- items of intermediate difficulty are sought

Thurstone's model for item construction calls for a

A- linear trace line

C
B- monotonic trace line
C- non-monotonic trace line
D- deterministic trace line
 Thurstone's approach to the construction of attitude
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
scales was replaced for most practical purposes by one
developed by

A
A- Rensis Likert
B- Louise Guttman
C- Georg Rasch
D- Charles Spearman

Scalogram analysis implies that a person's position on a

trait indicates

A- whether they will get a test item right or wrong

A B- that they are more likely to get the item right than
wrong
C- that they are likely to get the item right or wrong but
it is by no means certain
D- that they will be unsure of the correct response

Multiple choice tests provide more than two options for

each question to overcome the problem of

D A- faking
B- carelessness
C- defensiveness
D- guessing

An important step in writing items for psychological tests

is to

A- pilot test the items with individuals similar to those for

whom the test is being
A
developed
B- provide translations into other languages
C- compare the content with existing psychological tests
D- use item writers who are blind to the meaning of the
construct being tested
 Test construction
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
A- is a linear process with one stage following the other
without variation
C B- is a relatively inexpensive process
C- follows a sequence of steps but these steps may
need to be retraced from time to
time
D- can be done quite quickly using modern computers

Items with very high or very low endorsement

frequencies generally are

A A- poor items
B- good items
C- reliable items
D- valid items

In preparing a test for publication we need to spend a

good deal of time on

B A- finding a publisher
B- preparing a manual for the test user
C- deciding on price
D- selecting an attractive packaging

A good manual for a psychological test

A- indicates to the unqualified potential user that they

D should not be using the test
B- is comprehensible to the qualified test user
C- is precise enough to satisfy measurement specialists
D- all of the above
 In norming a test we need to bear in mind
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
A- how we ensure the sample is normally distributed
D
B- how we ensure everyone in the sample is normal
C- what we expect the average response to be
D- how the test is to be used

Although it is useful to include norms for different

groups from the population we need to bear in mind
that

A- increasing the number of groups decreases the

overall sample size required
B
B- increasing the number of groups increases the overall
sample size required
C- increasing the number of groups increases the overall
standard deviation
D- increasing the number of groups decreases the
overall standard deviation

The biserial correlation

A- is another name for the point biserial correlation

C
B- is a type of product moment correlation
C- can be estimated from the item discrimination index
D- can be estimated from the item reliability index

In conducting item analysis in test construction

A- the procedure can be repeated with new samples of

items until a satisfactory set
has been found
A B- the procedure should be used once and once only so
as not to capitalise on chance
C- the procedure can only be repeated using the same
set of items
D- the procedure cannot be repeated with the same set
of items
 Systematic bias in a test can occur when
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
A- people respond to non-essential features of items
rather than to item content
B- peoples' responses to items varies greatly from one
A
administration of the items to
the next
C- some people do not sustain their attention when
answering the items
D- items are not easy to understand

If a person endorses a substantial number of items in the

improbable direction (e.g.,'I have never told a lie in my
life'), we might infer the person is

B A- a living saint
B- trying to create a favourable impression of himself or
herself
C- a very truthful individual
D- not paying attention

If p is the proportion of a sample endorsing a

dichotomously scored item in the keyed direction and q
is 1-p (i.e.,.the proportion endorsing the item in the
opposite direction), then the standard deviation of
scores on the item is
C

A- p
B- q
C- pq
D- pq
 The term 'social desirability' when used with respect to
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
construction of a personality
test refers to the fact that

A- people differ in their tendency to create a favourable

impression of themselves when answering test items
A
B- people differ in how strongly they are drawn to the
company of others
C- people differ in how attractive they find social
activities
D- people differ in terms of their tendency to agree
rather than disagree with personality statements

In studying the behaviour of items in a psychological

test, one of the item statistics
recommended by some experts is item reliability. This is

A- the product of the item-total correlation and the

variance of the item
B
B- the product of the item-total correlation and the
standard deviation of the item
C- the product of the square roots of the item-total
correlation and item variance
D- the product of the item-total correlation and the
square root of the item variance

The item validity is the

A- correlation of the item score with the total score on

the test
B- correlation of the item with an external criterion
B
measure of the construct being
tested
C- average correlation of the item with all other items
D- correlation of the item with the average score on all
other items
 The discriminability of an item refers to the capacity of
Chapter 6 - Test Construction
the item to

A- separate those that are high and low on the trait of

A
interest
B- distinguish between minority and majority groups
C- identify those who get the item correct
D- identify those who get the difficult items right