Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE BASIC ISSUES
- PART TWO DIMENSIONS OF TESTING
- PART THREE APPLICATIONS OF TESTING
- PART FOUR THE SETTINGS
- PART FIVE CHALLENGES TO TESTING
- 16 The Issue of Faking
- 17 The Role of Computers
- 18 Testing Behavior and Environments
- 19 The History of Psychological Testing
- Appendix: Table to Translate Difficulty Level of a Test Item into a z Score
- References
- Test Index
- Index of Acronyms
- Subject Index
- References
19 - The History of Psychological Testing
from PART FIVE - CHALLENGES TO TESTING
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE BASIC ISSUES
- PART TWO DIMENSIONS OF TESTING
- PART THREE APPLICATIONS OF TESTING
- PART FOUR THE SETTINGS
- PART FIVE CHALLENGES TO TESTING
- 16 The Issue of Faking
- 17 The Role of Computers
- 18 Testing Behavior and Environments
- 19 The History of Psychological Testing
- Appendix: Table to Translate Difficulty Level of a Test Item into a z Score
- References
- Test Index
- Index of Acronyms
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
AIM In this chapter we take a brief look at the history of psychological testing and a peek at the future. For didactic purposes, we consider the current status of psychological testing as reflecting four major strands: the French clinical tradition, the German nomothetic tradition, the British idiographic tradition, and the American applied tradition.
INTRODUCTION
When you meet a new person at a party, for example, you want to know their name and a little bit about their background – what's their family like, where did they grow up, and so on. In this text, you have “met” psychological testing; it is time to take a brief look backwards. Psychological testing is, in American society, at least, quite ubiquitous. Children are tested in a variety of ways, from preschool days through middle-school graduation. High-school adolescents are given aptitude tests to determine what they can master, achievement tests to assess what they have mastered, minimum competency exams to determine whether their diploma should be granted, interest tests to help them choose careers, and college-entrance examinations to allow them to progress in the educational stream. Similarly, college students come face to face with a variety of educational and psychological exams, and if you think college graduation means the end of testing, you are in for a big surprise!
Psychological testing is a recent phenomenon, closely interwoven with 20th-century American culture, yet the use of systematic procedures for comparing and evaluating individuals is quite old.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Psychological TestingAn Introduction, pp. 517 - 534Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006