Announcements

1. A syllabus was handed out. Please read it carefully and keep your copy. You will need it.

If you lose it, get another one from the class website, http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/~kopeikin/psy121.htm  (or follow the links at drhal.com)
2. There are openings for the class for Psychology majors and other upper-division students; pre-majors are not eligible.

Outline of Today's Lecture

Today's Lecture

Much of the lectures will overlap the assigned reading but there is a great deal of information in the reading which will not be covered in lectures. Although the material that is covered in both lectures and readings will be emphasized on exams, you will be responsible for all the reading material whether covered in lecture or not. The professor strongly emphasized that you do the reading.

Uses of Psychology tests

General uses

• tests typically describe an individual by comparison to a group of others
• tests contribute to decision making
• testing is crucial to research

Specific uses

• selection (e.g., entrance exams)
• placement (e.g., language class level tests)
• proficiency
• ranking (numerical ranking of individuals)
• diagnosis (pigeonholing individuals into groups)
• evaluation (how good or bad)
• research: subjects, description, hypothesis

Defining tests

• Tests are standardized procedures for measuring a sample of behavior. (The professor stressed this.)
• But what does this mean? Look closely at the definition.

1. Consistency in content
2. Consistency in administration
3. Consistency in scoring

• Measurement involves assigning numbers to behavior.

Characteristics of psychological tests

• relative (results are meaningless without comparisons)
• indirect (test look at symptoms or manifestations)
• descriptive (vs. explanatory. They don't tell us why the results were as they were)

• typically measure traits (traits are intercorrelated clusters of behavior that we believe to be relatively consistent over time and in different situations)