Psychological Tests: Important instruments of psychological diagnostics

Psychological Tests are created by scientists, meaningful instruments for the collection of personality traits. With their help, diagnostic questions are to be answered according to the Existence of a mental problem.

Components and validity of psychological Tests

Serious Tests consist of the aspects of implementation, evaluation and Interpretation.

• For the implementation of the spatial conditions, the type and manner of documentation, and also the Material of the Tests will be counted. Standardized psychological Tests include detailed, precise instructions for the test and several tasks or questions for the Test.
• Prior to the evaluation of the individual Tests according to norm values. This is not always easy to answer and requires a broad-scale preliminary studies in the so-called normal population.
• For the diagnosis of mental health problems and personality disorders, so the Interpretation of the Tests is also needed conversations with the person Concerned because of a possibly wrong answer, must be excluded.

Psychological Tests may only be used as a serious tool for psychological diagnosis used, if you fulfill the specified requirements, they are sufficiently standardized, and only the obviously required personality traits to be mapped.

Not to be confused with the scientifically-created diagnostic Tests with so-called psycho-tests, as they are often in magazines and magazines to be found. The latter were rarely developed by experts and are used solely for entertainment purposes. You have no significance in relation to personality traits and mental abnormalities. They can be used in rare cases, but as a first indication.

Types and collection methods of psychological testing

There is no clear scientific classification of psychological Tests, a distinction is made preferably according to the type of implementation and background characteristics. The following classification is considered a trendsetter:

In performance tests, the test person has to resolve within a defined period of time tasks. The search checks the correctness of the answers and the time spent.

Interpretation tests consist of two Parts: on the one Hand, the subject describes in a questionnaire to be ordinary behavior and his feelings, on the other hand, he will judge the submitted objects. The most famous interpretation of the test is the Rorschach test.

The main Form of psychological Tests, judgment tests, such as the “Big-Five Test”. The questions used according to one’s own behaviour and Experience, there is no wrong or right answers. The need for an honest answer to a Problem for these Tests because a lot of people try, the desired and socially acceptable answers to assess.

This brief introduction of psychological Tests could only provide an Overview of the most important rules and types of Tests, for detailed information, among other things, the popular textbook “introduction to Test – and questionnaire construction – The standard work of empirical psychology in a new adaptation” by Markus Bühner.