Psychology

Test Selection and Location

General points on test location and selection

There are various ways of locating tests. As well as looking at the George Combe Psychometric Test Collection list of tests held by the department, you can do a keyword search (eg 'anxiety', 'anger', 'body image') on databases accessible via the library website such as Web of Science and also try searching the web using appropriate keywords. There are a number of web sites which give information on psychometric tests, for example the APA site has links to various sources of test information. Tests fall into two categories: those that are made freely available by researchers and commercial tests. A reference to the first type of test is usually a book chapter or journal article; for the second type it will be to a manual published by a commercial organisation. Full details of freely available (public domain) tests can be usually be found by consulting the relevant article; if full details are not given, you may be able obtain extra materials (e.g. a list of test items) by contacting the author by email. It is not usually possible to fund the purchase of additional commercial tests; you should consult your supervisor about the availability of funds to do this (often a literature search will produce a public domain equivalent of a commercial test).

Personality

You should know the personality dimensions you wish to assess and have some rationale for assessing them. First, second and third year Psychology courses all include lectures on personality, and you may wish to consult your notes to remind you of the main personality dimensions and models. If you are interested in the dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism and/or psychoticism then the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) or its revised form (EPQ-R) is recommended. The short form of the EPQ-R (which is suitable for most student projects) is in the public domain and, therefore, is free (Reference: S.B.G. Eysenck, H.J. Eysenck & P. Barrett. [1985]. A revised version of the psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Differences<, 6, 21-29.). A public domain version suitable for use with children is also available (Corulla, W. J. [1990]. A revised version of the psychoticism scale for children. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 65-76.) If you are interested in agreeableness, conscientiousness and/or openness to experience in addition to extraversion and neuroticism then you will require a measure of the Five Factor Model of personality. The trait-descriptive adjectives developed by Goldberg are in the public domain and are recommended for this purpose (L. R. Goldberg , [1992]. The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26-42; copies of this paper are available from the librarian). A shorter scale derived from the Goldberg adjectives can be photocopied in the Main Library (Saucier, G. [1994]., Mini-markers: a brief version of Goldberg's unipolar Big-Five markers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 506-516). There are also additional Five Factor Model test items available on Goldberg's Web site, http://empip.ori.org/empip/). Another way to assess the Five-Factor Model is via a set of 80 adjective pairs (McCrae, R.R. & Costa,, P.T., Jr. (1985). Updating Norman's "Adequate Taxonomy": Intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language questionnaires. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 710-721. The NEO-PI-R and the NEO-FFI (by Costa and McCrae) are also available in the department but, in common with all the other personality tests provided, are under copyright and a published booklet is needed for each subject. Costs may be high if you wish to use published tests such as these, so think carefully about your project.

If you wish to study individual differences in aggression, The Aggression Questionnaire is in the public domain and has good psychometric characteristics (Reference: A.H. Buss & M. Perry. [1992]. The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 452-459).

For the trait of Sensation-Seeking, various forms of Zuckerman's sensation-seeking scale are in the public domain, but beware of old versions with outdated wording. A copy of the latest (1994) version of this scale is available in the department.

Intelligence

The main division in these tests is between those which must be individually administered and those which may be given to groups. Individually administered tests generally require more training than do group tests. Of the individual tests, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) is still the Rolls Royce of intelligence test batteries and is suitable for most adult samples. It has 11 subtests. For samples of children the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) provides a similarly detailed assessment, and the WPPSI will test even younger children. These batteries require some investment of time for familiarisation and training, and they take up to two hours to administer. Short forms may be used to save time.

Group tests of intelligence take less time and less skill to administer. The Raven's Progressive Matrices series will give a measure of non-verbal intelligence for children (the Coloured Progressive Matrices), normal adults and older children (the Standard Progressive Matrices) and brighter adults (eg students; the Advanced Progressive Matrices). The recently-added SPM-plus is designed to assess both the normal and brighter range. The Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales are partners to the Raven tests and measure verbal IQ in children (Junior test) or adults (Senior test). The Cattell Culture Fair Test is also group-administered, and has various versions for testing non-verbal intelligence in different ability ranges. Strongly recommended for verbal and non-verbal ability testing in normal or bright adults is the Alice Heim test range; the AH4 is suitable for average ability samples, and the AH5 and AH6 tests are suitable for groups of higher than average ability, such as students.

Memory

Many tests of memory are not proprietary and may be devised by consulting a reference which describes the test. For this reason, the department stores few tests of memory. There are hundreds of memory tests assessing different aspects of memory in different modalities. Your project supervisor will probably indicate which test is most appropriate for your study. For many purposes the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) is useful, and may be found in: M.D. Lezak, Neuropsychological Assessment (Second Edition), Oxford University Press. This test is relatively brief and tests many aspects of memory. For a more extensive assessment of memory functions the department has the second edition of the Wechsler Memory Scales (WMS).

Mood (non-clinical)

There are lots of different mood scales. If you wish to assess general non-clinical mood states you are recommended to use one of the more recent scales which assesses two or three dimensions. The UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist is convenient, comprehensive and free, and may be constructed by reading the appropriate reference carefully: G. Matthews, D.M. Jones & A.G. Chamberlain (1990), Refining the measurement of mood: the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist, British Journal of Psychology, 81, 17-42.

Depression, anxiety and other clinical scales

The department has a number of clinical scales and students are welcome to inquire about the suitability of these for their projects. Students are particularly encouraged to make use of the package called Assessment: A Mental Health Portfolio. This package contains a number of tests, all of which may be photocopied as often as required. In addition, all of these tests have some supporting literature, norms and scoring instructions. The package includes measures of Global psychological distress, General Health Questionnaire-12.

Anxiety

Fear Questionnaire, Mobility Inventory for Agoraphobia, Clinical Anxiety Scale, Padua Inventory.

Depression

Inventory for Depressive Symptomatology, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Interpersonal difficulties

Social Activities and Distress Scale, Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction.

Habit disorder

Morgan-Russell Assessment Schedule, Body Shape Questionnaire, Short Alcohol Dependence Data Questionnaire.

Psychological adjustment to Illness

McGill Pain Questionnaire.

Stress, coping and social Support

Hassles and Uplifts Scales, Significant Others Scale, Coping Responses Inventory.