Psychological Testing
A Practical Approach to Design and Evaluation
- Theresa J.B. Kline - University of Calgary, Canada
"Psychological Testing by Theresa J. B. Kline is an accessible, easy-to-read book that effectively communicates the current concepts, trends, and controversies in the field of psychological testing. Readers are provided with an in-depth analysis of psychometrics in a format that will keep their attention and that they will be able to relate to the significance of psychological testing across numerous areas such as schools, businesses, clinical settings, military, or government." -Todd L. Chmielewski, PsycCRITIQUES, December 7, 2005 VOL. 50, NO. 49, ARTICLE 12
Psychological Testing: A Practical Approach to Design and Evaluation offers a fresh and innovative approach to students and faculty in the fields of testing, measurement, psychometrics, research design, and related areas of study. Author Theresa J.B. Kline guides readers through the process of designing and evaluating a test, while ensuring that the test meets the highest professional standards. The author uses simple, clear examples throughout and fully details the required statistical analyses. Topics include—but are not limited to—design of item stems and responses; sampling strategies; classical and modern test theory; IRT program examples; reliability of tests and raters; validation using content, criterion-related, and factor analytic approaches; test and item bias; and professional and ethical issues in testing.
With the student in mind, Kline has created features that ease them into more difficult ideas, always stressing the practical use of theoretical concepts. Features include
- A step-by-step approach to designing a test, including construct identification, construct operationalization, collecting data, item assessment, and reliability and validity techniques
- Examples of data analyses with printouts and interpretation
- Up-to-date coverage of psychometric topics, such as difference scores, change scores, translation, computer adaptive testing, reliability and validity generalization, professional and ethical guidelines, and references
- IRT program outputs (dichotomous and multiple response)
- Coverage of traditional topics in the context of how they would be used, such as standard errors and confidence intervals
- Sampling approaches and their strengths and weaknesses, as well as response rates and missing data management
Psychological Testing is perfectly suited as a main text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate Testing or Psychometrics courses in departments of Psychology, Education, Sociology, Management, and in the Human Services disciplines. Professional researchers, educators, and consultants will also want to add this to their libraries for up-to-date coverage of test design and evaluation techniques.
"Professor Kline's attempts to de-mystify complex measurement concepts are beautifully simplified and illustrated in her countless illustrations of practical and relevant problems for the mathematically-challenged student. This book is also a must-have for those who simply do not have the desire for the theoretical jargon used in similar textbooks but are interested in the important conceptual and practical aspects of measurement as they apply in their disciplines."
—Arturo Olivarez, Jr., Texas Tech University
"Kline's Psychological Testing provides a well-written treatment of the critical issues in designing and evaluating psychometric instruments. This book will be very useful to advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers."
—Richard Block, Montana State University
Empirical, Theoretical and Rational Approaches to Item
Professor Kline’s attempts to de-mystify complex measurement concepts are beautifully simplified and illustrated in her countless illustrations of practical and relevant problems for the mathematically-challenged student. This book is also a must-have for those who simply do not have the desire for the theoretical jargon used in similar textbooks, but are interested in the important conceptual and practical aspects of measurement as they apply in their disciplines.
Kline’s Psychological Testing provides a well-written treatment of the critical issues in designing and evaluating psychometric instruments. This book will be very useful to advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers.
"[This book] fills an important niche...It is ideally suited to professional psychologists wishing to construct or evaluate a psychological test. Dr. Kline's sensible advice will serve them well."
Psychological Testing: A Practical Approach to Design and Evaluation by Theresa J. B. Kline is an easy-to-read, upper-level textbook covering topics related not only to basic psychological testing practices but also to methodological research components. The author is very effective at presenting relevant issues, facts, descriptions, examples, and statistics in a logical and concise manner. She describes and critiques several commonly used tests and the subtleties involved in test administration, as well as exploring the ethical issues surrounding the process. Readers with varying degrees of knowledge in the field will come away with a clear picture of the wide-ranging effects of psychological testing. The result is a conceptually stratified look at numerous complex measurement theories and psychometric concepts. ... Whereas some textbooks dealing with testing address statistics by giving it a chapter, Kline opts to integrate in-depth statistical analysis wherever appropriate to the topic being presented. This method is very effective, as it gives the reader the complete picture in a single snapshot. ... Psychological Testing by Theresa J. B. Kline is an accessible, easy-to-read book that effectively communicates the current concepts, trends, and controversies in the field of psychological testing. Readers are provided with an in-depth analysis of psychometrics in a format that will keep their attention and that they will be able to relate to the significance of psychological testing across numerous areas such as schools, businesses, clinical settings, military, or government.
Psychological Testing is an accessible, easy-to-read book that effectively communicates the current concepts, trends, and controversies in the field of psychological testing. Readers are provided with an in-depth analysis of psychometrics in a format that will keep their attention and that they will be able to relate to the significance of psychological testing across numerous areas such as schools, businesses, clinical settings, military, or government.
-- PsycCRITIQUES
Sage College Publishing
