USES ,
LIMITATIONS AND
ETHICS OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL
TESTING
-MANSHA [3203]
MALAIKA [3193]
USES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING:-
Psychological tests are widely used for
many purposes. It is very convenient to
distinguish the following five uses of
tests:
1. In classification: Psychological tests are
popularly used in making classification of persons,
that is, for assigning the persons to one category
rather than to another one. There are different
types of classification, each one giving emphasis
upon a particular purpose in assigning persons to
categories. Important types of categories are
placement, screening, certification and selection,
where psychological tests play a significant role in
each of these types.
• 1.1 Placement :- it refers to the sorting of
persons into appropriate programmes
according to their needs or skills. With the
help of the appropriate psychological tests,
teachers often in class enroll some of the
students into science faculty and some of
them into social science faculty.
• 1.2 Screening :- it refers to the procedures
of identification of persons with special
characteristics or needs. With the help of
psychological tests, psychometricians often
screen persons into creative persons and
persons having exceptional talent in abstract
reasoning.
• 1.3 Certification and selection :- these are
done with the help of psychological tests.
Certification implies that an individual has at least a
minimum proficiency in some discipline or activity.
When a person passes a certification examination, it
automatically confers some privileges. For example,
when a driver passes driving examination, he gets a
license. Selection is very much similar to certification
because it also confers some privileges on the part of
the persons who have been selected. These talks are
well accomplished with the help of psychological
tests. The persons who are selected on the basis of
the test scores are, for example, get admission into
certain course or gain employment in the
organization.
• 2. Planning and diagnosis for treatment
:-Psychological tests play a significant role in
making diagnosis and in planning for treatment.
Diagnosis means determining the nature of the
person’s abnormal behavior and classifying the
behavior pattern within an accepted system.
Intelligence tests are considered important for
diagnosis of mentally retarded children. A proper
diagnostic programme not only provides of a label,
but also the choice for treatment. When a child is
diagnosed as mentally retarded or having learning
disability, a planning for his treatment is accordingly
done so that the maximum help can be rendered.
• [Link] self-knowledge:- Psychological tests are also
useful in providing self-knowledge to the test takers of
the extent that such knowledge tends to change their
career path. Every administration of a psychological test
gives a feedback to the test takers regarding the level of
trait/ability being assessed. As a consequence, they bring
a change in the desired direction and mould their path
for betterment.
• 4. In evaluation of programmes:- Psychological
tests are often used in evaluation of various types of
educational and social programmes. In school and
colleges different types of programmes for betterment of
academic achievement are carried out and the persons
want to know about its impact. Such impacts are easily
assessed with the help of various types of achievement
and intelligence tests.
• 5. In theoretical and applied branches of behavioral research:
Psychological tests are very useful in research. They are frequently used in both theoretical
and applied researches. With the help of such tests, psychologists frequently investigate
theoretical matters that have no immediate or obvious practical applications.
• Take example for an applied field, suppose neuropsychologists wish to test the hypothesis
that low level of lead absorption produces behavioral deficit in children. This hypothesis can
be easily tested by examining lead-burdened children and normal children with the help of
psychological tests. With the help of various types of psychological tests, it has been
reported that low-level lead absorption in children produces decrement in IQ, impairment in
reaction time and increase in undesirable classroom behavior. This automatically shows that
psychological tests are useful in applied areas too and there should not be any debate about
the validity of testing-based research findings
LIMITATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
TESTING :-
Despite its various uses,
psychological tests are not without
limitations. Some of the important
limitations are as under:-
1 .Psychological tests represent an
invasion of privacy: Psychological tests may
be invasion of privacy if they are used without the
permission of the testees to obtain personal and
sensitive information.
• [Link] tests permanently categorize
the persons: -On the basis of the performance of
psychological tests, the testees or examinees, are given
certain categories like mentally retarded, gifted, brain-
damaged, etc., and the authority behaves accordingly
disregarding evidence of any further change. This has a
serious implication for the examinees. The examinees can
definitely change and great care should be taken in the
interpretation and use of the test results.
• [Link] tests measure only limited and
beneficial aspects of behaviour:- It is said that the
psychological tests cannot measure the most important
human traits. They force the examinees to take decisions
based on superficial and relatively unimportant criteria.
• 4 .Psychological tests create anxiety:-
Generally, it has been reported that when the
assessment is to be done through psychological
tests, the examinees feel anxious and this anxiety
affect their performances. However, the examinees
who are familiar with specific types of tests are less
anxious than those who are familiar with the test
contents.
• [Link] tests penalize bright
and creative examinees:-Psychological tests
are insensitive to atypical and creative responses.
Such responses are not given much credit thus
providing a discrimination against the talented
examinees.
• Thus, psychological testing have some limitations.
