Psychological Assessment

1. Introduction

This essay intends to discuss the process to be followed in developing a psychological assessment measure. It will discuss the steps that need to be taken in this process, including how items would be choose for a test; how the reliability and validity of the test would be evaluated, as well as the issue of establishing norms. In addition, it will examine the theory comprehensively and show my understanding with an example. Finally, it will list the steps that should be followed in the adaptation of an assessment measure for cross-cultural application and briefly explain what each step entails.

2. Developing a psychological assessment measure

In the development of a psychological assessment measure, one needs to follow a process consisting of various steps. Firstly, there is the planning phase, in which the definition of the content of the measure takes place. Also, within this phase one needs to decide about the format of the items, including the length of the measure.

Secondly, the actual writing of the items takes place. Next, the experimental version of the measure takes. This is followed by the item analysis phase, in which the most suitable items are selected for the final measure. To add to this, item difficulty value, the discrimination index and the item-total correlation are item statistics that can assist one to make the decision on which items are most suitable for the measure. These statistics are based on the item response theory, which will be discussed later in detail.

The technical evaluation of the measure and the development of norms is the sixth phase. The last phase is the publishing and ongoing refinement of the measure.

3. Item response theory

The item response theory is also sometimes known as the latent trait theory. In item response theory, the true score is defined on the latent trait of interest rather than on the test. It provides a test of item equivalence across groups.

4. How to choose items for...