Psychological Testing
Janice Watson
PSY 475
June 19, 2015
Shirley Wilson

Psychological Testing
Introduction
This paper will discuss the major assumptions and fundamental questions of psychological testing. It will define what testing it, describe the major categories of test, their uses and who uses these tests. It will also compare and contrast reliability and validity and how they affect psychological testing.
Test
There are various ways in which an individual can define test. A test is a system for accomplishing something such as observing behavior and illustrating it with the help of numerical scales or prearranged categories (Hogan, 2007). There are common elements between “tests". They test some procedure or device that bring forth information. The procedure or device gives information about some behavior, and the test are a systematic, standardized procedure (Hogan, 2007). Another definition of psychological testing is that they are a written, verbal, or visual assessment done to determine the cognitive and emotional activity of individuals (Health, 2015). Just because there are many ways to define test does not mean each answer is wrong. It depends on the subject matter at hand and how the individual chooses to define it.
Categories of Test
There are five major categories of test that include personality, interests and attitudes, achievement test, neuropsychological, and mental ability tests (Hogan, 2007). The personality test includes many test that are created to produce knowledge about an individual’s personality. Personality test are used by employers to help learn about their employees. The employers use the Personality Assessment Test (PAT) to get this information. Another type of personality test would be Beck Depression Inventory (BID). This test is used to see if individuals are suffering from severe depression.