Exploring the Different Categories of Research Tests

UPI Study › Courses › Research Methods in Psychology › Free lessons › Lesson 9.4 Free with a free account

Exploring the Different Categories of Research Tests

Research Methods in Psychology · Chapter 9: Measurement, Reliability, and ValiditySection 9.4 · lesson 53 of 9410 min · free with a free account

← Variables and the Levels at Which They Are MeasuredNext lesson: Reliability and the Sources of Measurement Error →

Earn 3 college credits for Research Methods in PsychologyRecommended for credit by NCCRS · Psychology 111 · self-paced · one payment, lifetime access
Enroll in Research Methods in Psychology · $250 →Download the syllabus (PDF)

In this lesson

An overview of the assessment tools used in psychological research.

  • Distinguish standardized from non-standardized tests
  • Separate norm-referenced from criterion-referenced scoring
  • Describe the six major categories of research test
  • Match a test category to a research question

Free study notes

Get this lesson's notes by email

The key points and 4 practice questions with answers, in your inbox. One email, free.

One email. Unsubscribe in one click.

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,295 words). Read along, or search it.

Measurement, Reliability, and Validity

Exploring the Different Categories of Research Tests

Psychology has built an enormous toolkit of tests. Some take three minutes on a phone. Some take a trained clinician half a day. Picking the wrong one wastes the study, and sometimes wrongs the participants. This section maps the whole landscape. You will distinguish standardized tests from non-standardized ones. You will separate norm-referenced scoring from criterion-referenced scoring. You will meet six major categories of research test, with real examples of each. And you will learn what each category is genuinely good and bad at.

The Toolkit

From a Web Form to a Trained Clinician

Psychological research relies on a wide array of measurement tools. We call them tests, or assessments. Their job is to operationalize constructs and collect data. The range is enormous. At one end, a brief self-report questionnaire administered online. At the other, an elaborate performance-based assessment. One that requires specialized training simply to administer and interpret. Now consider what happens when you pick the wrong one. Take a clinical diagnostic tool designed for a patient population. Use it on a healthy student sample, and the data may be uninterpretable. Or misleading, or genuinely ethically problematic. So test selection demands two kinds of knowledge at once. Methodological knowledge, and substantive knowledge of the population you are studying.

First Distinction

Standardized and Non-Standardized

The first distinction is standardization. A standardized test has been developed according to rigorous procedures. It is administered under uniform conditions. And it has been evaluated for reliability and validity across defined populations. Standardization buys one specific thing, and it is worth stating plainly. Scores from different administrations can be meaningfully compared. Without it, a score means something only inside the study that produced it. A non-standardized test is developed for a specific study. Without the full battery of psychometric validation behind it. A researcher-designed questionnaire, created for a single investigation. These are sometimes necessary, and that is not a failure of rigor. When no validated instrument exists for your construct or population, you build one. But such tools require additional caution in interpretation.

Second Distinction

Compared to Whom, or Against What?

The second distinction is about how a score gets its meaning. A norm-referenced test interprets a score in relation to other people. Specifically, to the performance of a standardization sample, called the norm group. Scoring at the seventy-fifth percentile on a cognitive ability test has a clear meaning. It means performing better than seventy-five percent of that norm group. Intelligence tests are norm-referenced, and so are most personality inventories. A criterion-referenced test interprets a score against a defined standard instead. Regardless of how anyone else performed. Achieving eighty percent accuracy on a driving test, for example. Or meeting the diagnostic criteria for a disorder. Many clinical assessments and educational competency tests work this way. The difference has a practical consequence worth noticing. A norm-referenced score can shift when the norm group changes, even if the person did not.

Category One

Cognitive Ability and Achievement Tests

Now the six categories, starting with cognitive ability tests. These measure the capacity to perform various mental operations. Reasoning, memory, processing speed, verbal and spatial abilities. They are among the most extensively validated instruments in all of psychology. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is the best-known example. So are Raven's Progressive Matrices, and the Cognitive Assessment System. In research they do three distinct jobs. They characterize a sample, so readers know who was studied. They control for ability differences between groups. And they let you investigate how cognitive ability relates to other variables.

Category Two

Personality and Self-Report Inventories

The second category is personality and self-report inventories. These measure relatively stable individual differences. Characteristic patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior. They typically consist of self-report items describing behaviors, attitudes, or preferences. Responses are usually recorded on Likert-type scales. The NEO Personality Inventory measures the Big Five personality dimensions. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is primarily clinical in orientation. And the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire is a long-established alternative. Research uses them to investigate individual differences at scale. And how those differences relate to health, behavior, and life outcomes.

Category Three

Clinical and Symptom Measures

The third category is clinical and symptom measures. These assess the presence and severity of psychological symptoms or disorders. They come in several formats. Structured diagnostic interviews, semi-structured interviews, and self-report questionnaires. The Beck Depression Inventory is a well-known self-report example. So are the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire. The Structured Clinical Interview is the interview-based counterpart. In research these measures do three quite different jobs. They characterize symptom severity in clinical samples. They screen out clinical levels of distress from supposedly healthy samples. And they serve as outcome variables in intervention studies.

Category Four

Neuropsychological Tests

The fourth category is neuropsychological testing. These assess cognitive functions associated with brain integrity. Attention, memory, executive function, language, visuospatial ability, processing speed. They are designed to detect patterns of impairment. Patterns associated with specific neurological conditions. That word patterns matters. It is the profile across tests that carries the information. The Trail Making Test and the Stroop Color and Word Test are standard examples. So are the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Research uses them to study the cognitive consequences of brain injury. Also of aging, of psychiatric disorders, and of pharmacological interventions.

Category Five

Projective Tests, and Why They Are Contested

The fifth category is the contested one. Projective tests. These present deliberately ambiguous stimuli. Inkblots, incomplete sentences, or ambiguous pictures. Participants are asked to describe, interpret, or respond to them. The underlying assumption is a strong one. That responses reflect unconscious thoughts, needs, conflicts, and personality characteristics. Material not accessible through direct self-report. The Rorschach Inkblot Method is the famous case, along with the Thematic Apperception Test. In research contexts, these are highly controversial. Their reliability and validity have been extensively debated. And many researchers consider them insufficiently standardized for quantitative use. Their clinical and qualitative research applications are somewhat more accepted.

Category Six

Performance-Based and Behavioral Tests

The sixth category takes a completely different approach. Performance-based and behavioral tests assess what participants actually do. Rather than what they report about themselves. They include laboratory tasks, such as reaction time paradigms and memory tasks. Also decision-making games, which reveal preferences through choices. They include observational coding systems too. Coding the quality of a parent-child interaction, for instance. And they include ecological momentary assessment. The advantage is that a task is hard to flatter yourself on. So these are relatively immune to social desirability bias and demand characteristics. In some contexts they also carry higher ecological validity. The cost is real, though. They often require more resources to administer. And they may have lower reliability than a standardized self-report measure.

Side by Side

Every Category Trades Something

Line all six categories up, and every one trades something. Cognitive ability tests are extensively validated, with objective scoring. But their scores may reflect education or culture, rather than pure ability. Personality inventories give broad coverage and efficient administration. But they are subject to social desirability bias. Clinical measures bring clinical utility and well-validated cutoffs. But they may lack sensitivity to variation below the clinical threshold. Neuropsychological tests are sensitive to brain-behavior relationships. But they are resource-intensive, and require specialist training. Projective tests claim access to material outside conscious awareness. But they carry poor reliability and validity evidence, and subjective scoring. And performance-based tests are objective, with low social desirability. But they are resource-intensive, and can have lower ecological validity in the laboratory.

Carrying It Forward

Choosing Well

Two general rules come out of all of this. Standardized tests with established psychometric properties are generally preferred. And every category has characteristic strengths and limitations. Those must be weighed against the requirements of your specific question. Three terms to keep. A norm-referenced test interprets a score against a standardization sample. A criterion-referenced test interprets it against a fixed standard of performance. And a performance-based test measures what people do, not what they say. So the right question is never simply, which test is best? It is, best for this construct, this population, and this question? Next we move from categories of test to the forms measurement itself can take.

About Research Methods in Psychology at UPI Study

Research Methods in Psychology (Psychology 111) is a self-paced online course of 94 video lessons in 16 chapters, from the scientific method and research ethics to designs, data collection, sampling, measurement, validity, experiments, descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.

Every lesson transcript is free on pages like this one, and the videos are free with a free UPI Study account. Enrolling adds a practice quiz after each lesson, the graded work and final exam that earn the credit, lifetime access, and an official transcript on completion. UPI Study has helped over 130,000 students with college credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Enroll now → Course details Download the syllabus All Psychology and social science courses Every course with PRO →

Compare: Research Methods vs Statistics

Why take it here

Why students take Research Methods in Psychology with UPI Study

How psychologists know what they knowResearch Methods in Psychology teaches how psychological studies are designed, run and judged: research ethics, surveys and observation, correlational and experimental designs, sampling, reliability and validity, and the statistics used to test hypotheses. It is a core course in psychology and many social-science degrees.
Credit at a fraction of the priceThe same 3 credits can cost $750 or more at a US college. Here it is one payment, self-paced, with lifetime access.
Finish your degree soonerTransfer credits reduce the courses you still owe, so you can graduate earlier or lighten a heavy semester.
Strengthen an applicationA completed college-level course on an official transcript shows admissions and scholarship committees you can do the work.
Study on your own scheduleNo start dates, no deadlines. Watch the lessons, practice, and take the final when you are ready.
130,000+students helped with college creditsACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Where the credit goes

Universities that work with NCCRS

Research Methods in Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Thomas Edison State UniversityThomas Edison State UniversitySigned partnerUniversity of the PeopleUniversity of the PeopleSigned partnerCharter Oak State CollegeCharter Oak State CollegeSigned partnerStrayer UniversityStrayer UniversitySigned partnerColumbia Southern UniversityColumbia Southern UniversitySigned partnerIndiana TechIndiana TechSigned partnerPenn StatePenn StateWorks with NCCRSSouthern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire UniversityWorks with NCCRSSUNYSUNYWorks with NCCRS +many more cooperating universitiesFind my college →

Find my college → Not listed? Ask Athena in the corner of this page, or book a 15-minute call.

FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Exploring the Different Categories of Research Tests

What is the difference between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests?
A norm-referenced test interprets a score by comparing it with a standardization sample, called the norm group, while a criterion-referenced test compares it with a fixed standard regardless of how others performed. Scoring at the 75th percentile on a cognitive ability test means outperforming 75 percent of the norm group. Reaching a required accuracy level on a driving test, or meeting diagnostic criteria for a disorder, are criterion-referenced judgments.
What is a standardized test in psychology?
A standardized test is one developed through rigorous procedures, administered under uniform conditions, and evaluated for reliability and validity in defined populations. Standardization allows scores from different administrations to be compared meaningfully. A non-standardized test, such as a questionnaire written for a single study, lacks that full validation. It is sometimes necessary when no validated instrument exists for a construct or population, but its results call for more cautious interpretation.
What are the main types of psychological tests used in research?
Six broad categories are common: cognitive ability tests such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; personality inventories such as the NEO Personality Inventory; clinical and symptom measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory; neuropsychological tests such as the Trail Making Test and the Stroop Color and Word Test; projective tests such as the Rorschach; and performance-based or behavioral tests such as reaction-time tasks and observational coding.
Why are projective tests controversial in research?
Projective tests are controversial because their reliability and validity have been extensively debated. Tests such as the Rorschach Inkblot Method and the Thematic Apperception Test present ambiguous stimuli and assume that responses reveal unconscious needs, conflicts, and personality traits. Their scoring is relatively subjective, and many researchers consider them insufficiently standardized for quantitative research, although they are somewhat more accepted in clinical and qualitative work.

About the Research Methods in Psychology course

How many college credits is Research Methods in Psychology?
Research Methods in Psychology (Psychology 111) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Research Methods in Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 94 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
Which universities accept UPI Study credits?
UPI Study has signed partner agreements with universities such as Thomas Edison State University, University of the People and Charter Oak State College, and works with universities such as Penn State, SNHU and SUNY. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities. Use "Find my college" on this page to check yours.
How long does Research Methods in Psychology take?
It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 94 lessons total about 16 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
How are the exams done?
Quizzes and assignments are online in the course. The final exam is taken online with proctoring; a person on the UPI Study team checks assignments, usually within two days.
How do my credits reach my college?
When the course shows 100% complete, request the official transcript from your dashboard. It is sent to the college you name, and you can send it to more than one. Check your college first with "Find my college" on this page, or ask Athena.

Ready for the full course? Earn 3 credits in Research Methods in Psychology.

94 video lessons, a quiz after each one, and the graded work that earns the credit. Recommended for credit by NCCRS.

Enroll in Research Methods in Psychology →Download the syllabusEvery course with PRO →
Research Methods in Psychology
3 credits · NCCRSEnroll →