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PSY475 (Week 2 DQ 1)
Explain the steps to test development?
1. The purpose of the test must be stated. Almost always this entails the defining of what trait or behavior is to be measured and what target audience will be tested. It can be just one sentence (Hogan, 2007).
2. It would seem that this step is mostly concerned with the subject of validity, dealing with issues of interpretation and purpose. Items of consideration include: mode of administration, length, item format, number of scores, score reports, administrator training, and background research.
3. Item preparation is the proposition and preliminary design of the items that will make up the test. Items consist of a examiner stimulus, an examinee response, (selected-response or constructed-response) and scoring procedures.
4. Step 4 consists of item tryout, the statistical analysis, and item selection of the items proposed in step 3.
5. The standardization program or the norming program seeks to establish a norm for the test items being administered, to create a standard by which future test scores may be interpreted and compared.
6. Last, publication of the test—at its very basic level—includes a test booklet, the scoring key, and instruction on how the test should be administered.
I must admit, there is a lot more involved in creating a test than I had first considered. I can remember from the statistics class that the number of people being tested, the p-value, and the descriptions of central tendency were very important when considering the test results. However, this goes a step further and gets into exactly how the items of a test should be constructed and administered. I had no idea so much went into test construction.
Hogan, T.P. (2007). Psychological testing: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ:

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