Psychological Testing And Assessment: An

Cohen Swerdlik:Psychological Testing andAssessment: AnIntroduction to Tests andMeasurement, SeventhEditionFront MatterPreface The McGraw HillCompanies, 2010100 people. The “marketing” of the first edition of our book consisted of our publisherbuying a list of instructors who taught a measurement course and then sending out asample copy of the book to everyone on that list. But apparently, it did not take muchmore than that for us to win over instructors and students. One after another, instructors voiced appreciation for our perspective on the discipline, our selection of topics tobe covered, and our lucid presentation of the material. By the time we began work onthe second edition, our textbook was the one that was being emulated by all of the others. It still is. Today, coverage of many of the topics we first deemed to be essential ina measurement text is now “standard” among measurement textbooks. We assure youthat such material—a statistics refresher, coverage of behavioral assessment, coverageof legal and ethical issues, and so on—were by no means standard when the first edition of our book was published.The fact is that authors of textbooks then, much like authors today, are confrontedwith many choices. Some of these choices have to do with variables such as organization of the material to be presented, content selected for presentation, art to supplement the text, pedagogical tools to reinforce learning, and the writing style or voice used to“speak to” readers. We believe these variables are all critically important vis-à-vis howmuch students ultimately take away from the textbook they are assigned. So, the criticalquestion arises: How well does our measurement textbook “measure up” to others thatare available with regard to each of these important criteria? Rather than sharing ourown responses to that critical question, we ask that instructors, after a careful review ofthe available alternatives, draw their own opinion. Here, for our part, we hope only toimpart a sense of the logic we have applied in organizing and presenting material forthis seventh edition, and what we have tried to accomplish.Let’s begin with the matter of organization. From the first edition of our book forward, we have organized the information to be presented into five major sections. Whilewe have no illusions about this organization reaching the iconic status of another “bigfive,”1 this organization has been proven to work well for both students and instructorsalike. Part I, An Overview, contains two chapters that do just that. Chapter 1 provides acomprehensive overview of the field, including some important definitional issues, ageneral description of tools of assessment, and related important information couchedas answers to questions regarding the who, what, why, how, and where of the enterprise.The foundation for the material to come continues to be laid in the second chapterof the overview, which deals with historical, cultural, and legal/ethical issues. Thematerial presented in Chapter 2 clearly sets a context for everything that will follow.To relegate such material to the back of the book (as a kind of elective topic, much likethe way that legal/ethical issues are treated in some books), or to ignore presentation ofsuch material altogether (as most other books have done with regard to cultural issuesin assessment), is, in our estimation, a grave error. “Back page infrequency” (to borrow an MMPI-2 term) is too often the norm, and relegation of this critically importantinformation to the back of the book inevitably means that too many students will beshortchanged—if not totally deprived— of key cultural, historical, legal, and ethicalinformation.The second part of the book, The Science of Psychological Measurement, containsChapters 3 through 8, six chapters designed to build, logically and sequentially,the student’s knowledge of psychometric principles. The part begins with a chapterreviewing basic statistical principles and ends with a chapter on test construction. Inbetween, there is extensive discussion of assumptions inherent in the enterprise, theelements of good test construction, and the concepts of norms, correlation, inference,1. A not-so-subtle homage here to Paul T. Costa Jr. and Robert R. McCrae.Prefacexv3

4Cohen Swerdlik:Psychological Testing andAssessment: AnIntroduction to Tests andMeasurement, SeventhEditionFront MatterPreface The McGraw HillCompanies, 2010reliability, and validity. In a new chapter (Chapter 7) titled “Utility,” readers will finddefinitions of utility and related terminology, a discussion of the many factors that canaffect a test’s utility, and a discussion of the process of conducting a utility analysis.The Close-up in this new chapter provides a step-by-step, informative illustration of ahypothetical utility analysis. Students will come away from this chapter not only witha working knowledge of what utility is, but how an index of utility is derived, and thevarious ways that cut scores can be set.Let’s note here that topics such as utility and utility analysis can get extremelycomplicated. However, we have never shied away from the presentation of so-called difficult material. For example, we were the first introductory textbook to present detailedinformation on conducting a factor analysis. As more commercial publishers and othertest users have adopted the use of item response theory (IRT) in test construction, soour coverage of IRT has kept pace. In fact, in this edition, we have more coverage ofIRT than in any previous edition. As more test reviews have begun to evaluate tests notonly in terms of variables such as reliability and validity but in terms of utility, we sawa need for the inclusion of a new chapter on that topic. By the way, we could not findcomparable coverage of the important concept of test utility in any current competingtextbook.2Of course, no matter how “difficult” the concepts we present are, we never for amoment lose sight of the appropriate level of presentation or who the students are whohave been assigned our text. This book is designed for students taking a first course inpsychological testing and assessment. Our objective in presenting material on methodssuch as IRT and utility analysis is simply to acquaint the introductory student withthese techniques. The depth of the presentation in these and other areas has always beenguided and informed by extensive reviews from a geographically diverse sampling ofinstructors who teach the introductory measurement course. For users of this textbook,what currently tends to be required is a conceptual understanding of commonly usedIRT methods. We believe our presentation of this material effectively conveys such anunderstanding. Moreover, it does so without unnecessarily burdening students withlevel-inappropriate formulas and calculations.Part III of this book, The Assessment of Intelligence, contains three chapters, includingone that deals more generally with ability assessment in the schools. Part IV, The Assessment of Personality, contains two chapters that respectively overview how personalityassessments are conducted and the various methods used. Part V, Testing and Assessmentin Action, is designed to convey to students a sense of how tests and other tools of assessment are actually used in clinical, counseling, business, and other settings.In addition to a logical organization that sequentially builds on student learning, we view content selection as another key element of our appeal. The multifaceted nature and complexity of the discipline affords textbook authors wide latitudein terms of what material to elaborate on, what material to ignore, and what materialto highlight, exemplify, or illustrate. We welcome this latitude and take advantage ofit by peppering the text with sometimes unexpected, hopefully intriguing, facts andperspectives. In fact, as the many instructors who have used this book from the firstedition forward well know, each edition of the book has provided novel, sometimessurprising, but always thought-provoking information that goes beyond the basic,2. The terms utility or test utility do not appear in the index of any of the competing textbooks we lookedat (let alone the glossary or anywhere else). We make this observation to put on notice any skeptics of ourcontention that we have led the way in terms of the content of introductory measurement textbooks sinceour first edition. We fully expect all of the competing textbooks to follow us (as they always have in termsof content selection) in subsequent editions.xviPreface

Cohen Swerdlik:Psychological Testing andAssessment: AnIntroduction to Tests andMeasurement, SeventhEditionFront MatterPreface The McGraw HillCompanies, 2010need-to-know information about various topic areas. Our objective here has alwaysbeen to enhance the memorability of the material, while enriching students’ appreciation for it.So, for example, in the context of discussing projective techniques in the previous edition of this book, we first introduced B. F. Skinner as a pioneer in projectiveassessment (yes, that B. F. Skinner). This presentation was very well received as itinformed, surprised, and intrigued many a reader. In this edition, we anticipate thatDr. Eric Zillmer’s discussion of his work as a consultant for the U.S. government at thedetention center located in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (see Chapter 12 and the full-lengthessay online), will likewise be informative and intriguing. In a Close-up in Chapter 2on the career of Henry Herbert Goddard—also new to this edition—many students(and instructors) alike will be surprised to learn facts about this most controversial figure in the history of assessment who they may not have known before. For example,how many of us were aware that Goddard served as the first coach for the University ofCalifornia football team?(!)And speaking of Close-ups—the pedagogical tool employed in each chapter sincethe first edition to focus in on a particular aspect of testing and assessment—we believethat students and instructors alike will find a wealth of useful information in the widearray of topics covered in our seventh edition Close-ups. For example, the Close-up inChapter 1 (new to this edition), tackles the growing controversy regarding the issue ofthird-party presence during test administration. In Chapter 5, the Close-up, also new tothis edition, introduces students to item response theory (IRT)—just the beginning ofexpanded coverage of IRT throughout this book. In Chapter 12, the Close-up presentstimely material on measures of acculturation.Beyond intriguing assessment-related sidebars, there is a great deal of contentthat is new to this edition, and new about it. Of course, we have updated the text withregard to relevant information about selected new or widely used tests that have beenpublished since our last edition. This updating includes, for example, discussion ofthe MMPI-2-Restructured Form. And as you might expect, we have updated the textwith new test-related legislation, judicial decisions, and administrative regulationsthat have gone into effect since our last edition. Additionally, expanded and updatedcoverage is also presented on a wide variety of assessment-related topics. A partiallisting of what is new in this seventh edition (and not already alluded to previouslyor elsewhere) includes material on: behavioral profiling, biopsychosocial assessment,the clock drawing test, collaborative assessment, dynamic assessment, implicit attitudes, implicit motives, and implicit memory. Also included is new material on various luminaries in the field of assessment such as Lev Vygotsky and John E. Exner Jr.We have always been the clear leader among general measurement textbooks in termsof culture-related issues in measurement, and this proud tradition continues in theseventh edition.Complementing judicious selection of manuscript content is an art program thathas far-and-away led the field among measurement textbooks. In an era in whichmost comparable texts featured an illustration or two —usually a picture of a testmaterial—we pioneered the use of photos and other illustrations to provide meaningful images to be associated with the concepts being discussed. See, for example, theseries of photos used to illustrate a computer-assisted method of quantifying backstress (Chapter 1), the turn-of-the-century photo of the immigrant being tested at EllisIsland to supplement the presentation of historical facts (Chapter 2), and the dramatic photo capturing hockey violence in the context of discussion of the AggressionQuestionnaire (Chapter 12). In the world of textbooks, such photos may not seemvery revolutionary. And maybe they are not. However, in the world of measurementPrefacexvii5

6Cohen Swerdlik:Psychological Testing andAssessment: AnIntroduction to Tests andMeasurement, SeventhEditionFront MatterPreface The McGraw HillCompanies, 2010textbooks, our innovative art program was indeed revolutionary (and by all accounts,still is). Photos and other illustrations complementing the text enrich the presentationand make it more meaningful— a fact mentioned again and again in student reviewsof our book.The objective of incorporating timely, relevant, and intriguing illustrations ofassessment-related material is furthered by several pedagogical tools built in to the text.We have already made reference to our strategic use of Close-ups. Another pedagogicaltool we innovated seven editions ago is Everyday Psychometrics. In each chapter of thebook, relevant, practical, and “everyday” examples of the material being discussed ishighlighted in an Everyday Psychometrics box. For example, in the Everyday Psychometrics presented in Chapter 1, students will be introduced to accommodations made inthe testing of persons with handicapping conditions. In Chapter 4, Putting Tests to theTest equips students with a working overview of the variables they need to be thinkingabout when reading about a test and evaluating how satisfactory the test really is forthe purpose being described. In Chapter 5, the subject of the Everyday Psychometrics isthe reliability of the instrumentation used by law enforcement authorities to measurealcoholic intoxication.New to this seventh edition is a pedagogical tool we call Meet an Assessment Professional. By way of background, we invited a number of people employed in variousassessment-related areas to write an essay introducing themselves (and students) tothe work that they do. Each chapter presents an excerpt of one essay, with the completeessay available online on our companion instructional website, www.mcgrawhill.com/test7 (which, by the way, also contains a wealth of other course-enhancing, assessmentrelated information for students). Collectively, the essays serve the purpose of emphasizing the practical value of learning about psychological tests and the assessmententerprise. They provide students with an instructive and often intriguing glimpseinto the everyday life for an assessment professional. They also provide accomplishedprofessionals with a forum to share insights, experiences, and advice with students.So, for example, in Chapter 4, students will meet a team of test users, Dr. Howard Atlasand Dr. Steve Julius, who have pressed psychometric knowledge into the service ofprofessional sports. They provide a unique and fascinating account of how applicationof their knowledge of regression was used to improve the on-court achievement of theChicago Bulls.Critical thinking may be defined as “the active employment of judgment capabilitiesand evaluative skills in the thought process” (Cohen, 1994, p. 12). Generative thinkingmay be defined as “the goal-oriented intellectual production of new or creative ideas”(Cohen, 1994, p. 13). The exercise of both of these processes, we believe, helps optimizeone’s chances for success in the academic world as well as in more applied pursuits. Inprevious editions, questions to stimulate critical and generative thinking were raised“the old-fashioned way.” That is, they were right in the text, and usually part of a paragraph. Acting on the advice of reviewers, we made this special feature of our writingeven more special beginning with the previous (sixth) edition of this book; we raisedthese critical-thinking questions in a more prominent way by presenting them in themargins to the text with a Just Think . . . heading. Perhaps with some encouragementfrom their instructors, motivated students will do their part and give thoughtful consideration to these Just Think questions.In addition to critical thinking and generative thinking questions called out inthe text, other pedagogical aids in this book include original cartoons created by theauthors, original illustrations created by the authors (including the model of memorypresented in the chapter on neuropsychological assessment), and original acronymsxviiiPreface

Cohen Swerdlik:Psychological Testing andAssessment: AnIntroduction to Tests andMeasurement, SeventhEditionFront MatterPreface The McGraw HillCompanies, 2010created by the authors.3 Each chapter ends with a Self-Assessment feature that studentsmay use to test themselves with respect to key terms and concepts presented in the text.By the way, many of the same terms listed in the Self-Assessment exercise are used asthe response keyed correct in the corresponding crossword puzzles presented in ourcompanion student workbook.What type of writing style or author voice works best with students being introducedto the field of psychological testing and assessment? Instructors familiar with the manymeasurement books that have come (and gone) may agree with us that the “voice” oftoo many authors in this area might best be characterized as humorless and professorialto the point of arrogance or pomposity. Students do not tend to respond well to textbooks written in such styles, and their eagerness and willingness to spend study timewith these authors (and even their satisfaction with the course as a whole) may easilysuffer as a consequence.In a writing style that could be characterized as somewhat informal and—to theextent possible, given the medium— conversational, we have made every effort toconvey the material to be presented as clearly as humanly possible. In practice, thismeans: keeping the vocabulary of the presentation appropriate (without ever “dumbingdown” or trivializing the material)presenting so-called difficult material in step-by-step fashion where appropriate,and always preparing students for its presentation by placing it in anunderstandable contextitalicizing the first use of a key word or phrase and then bolding it when a formaldefinition is givenproviding a relatively large glossary of terms to which students can refersupplementing material where appropriate with visual aids, tables, or otherillustrationsincorporating timely, relevant, and intriguing illustrations of assessment-relatedmaterial in the text as well as in the online materialsIn addition, we have interspersed some elements of humor in various forms (original cartoons, illustrations, and vignettes) throughout the text. The judicious use ofhumor to engage and maintain student interest is something of a novelty among measurement textbooks. Where else would one turn for pedagogy that employs an exampleinvolving a bimodal distribution of test scores from a new trade school called The HomeStudy School of Elvis Presley Impersonators? What about the use of regression equationsto predict prospective grade-point averages at the DeSade School of Dentistry? As readers learn about face validity, they discover why it “gets no respect” and how it hasbeen characterized as “the Rodney Dangerfield of psychometric variables.” Examplesabound—but let’s reserve those smiles as a pleasant surprise when readers happen tocome upon them.Also in the interest of engaging and maintaining student interest, we continue atradition of drawing on popular culture for examples. Iron Chef, The Apprentice, SouthPark, and Survivor are television shows that students (and their instructors) watch,3. By the way, our use of the French word for black (noir) as an acronym for levels of measurement (nominal,ordinal, interval, and ratio) now appears in other textbooks. So if, as they say, “imitation is the sincerestform of flattery,” we’ll use this occasion to express our gratitude to fellow textbook authors for paying ustheir highest compliments.Prefacexix7

8Cohen Swerdlik:Psychological Testing andAssessment: AnIntroduction to Tests andMeasurement, SeventhEditionFront MatterPreface The McGraw HillCompanies, 2010and a surprise reference to one of them to illustrate an assessment-related point canpair pleasant feelings of recognition with learning—perhaps more solidly involvingstudents in the material. In the course of learning how to write a good matching-typeitem, for example, students are challenged to identify what actors Pierce Brosnan, SeanConnery, Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby, David Niven, and RogerMoore all have in common.While still on the subject of author voice and style, let’s note that we have alwaysstrived to create “a read” for the student that flows logically, conti

1. Psychological Testing and Assessment 13 2. Historical, Cultural, and Legal/Ethical Considerations 47 II. The Science of Psychological Measurement 83 3. A Statistics Refresher 83 4. Of Tests and Testing 113 5. Reliability 151 6. Validity 184 7. Utility 220 8. Test Development 245 III. The Assessment of Intelligence 289 9. Intelligence and Its .