Psychology 2080B-001
Introduction to Test and Measurement
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
This course examines principles of psychological assessment in an applied context through lectures and demonstrations. Topics will include reliability and validity, legal and ethical issues in test construction, and selected controversial questions relating to assessment in areas such as personnel selection, standardized testing in schools, and group differences in test performance.
Antirequisite: Psychology 3840F/G
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Rachel Plouffe
Office and Phone Number: SSC 7312 / 1-226-926-6815 (email preferred)
Office Hours: TBA
Email: rplouffe@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: Claire Wilson
Office: SSC 7312
Office Hours: TBA
Email: cwils26@uwo.ca
Time and Location of Classes: Thursdays 7:00 – 10:00 PM / SSC 2050
If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Kaplan, R.M. & Saccuzzo, D.P. (2017) Psychology Testing: Principles, Applications, and Issues. 9th Edition. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth). NOTE: this is a special edition of the text printed for this course, and should have the words "Psychology 2080A/B" on the front cover).
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this course are:
• to provide students with basic knowledge about psychological tests and testing in applied areas, including neuropsychology, industrial/organizational psychology, educational psychology, and intelligence.
• to ensure students understand important terms and concepts, with particular attention to the concepts of reliability and validity
• to acquaint students with important pitfalls in the testing process, by describing problems with particular tests, particular testing procedures, and inappropriate uses of test results
• to ensure students understand ethical and legal implications of psychological testing.
Students should note that lectures are complements to text chapters, not substitutes. Some material appearing in the text will not be covered in lectures. Equally, some material covered in lectures will not be found in the text.
4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
|
Outcome |
Evaluation |
|
Identify various forms of assessment (e.g., interviewing, administering various tests, physical and behavioral examinations) |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
|
Distinguish between reliability and validity, identify procedures for assessing each characteristic, and compare difficulties arising in those procedures |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
|
Compare competing approaches to the assessment of intelligence and identify strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
|
Distinguish between career counseling and employee selection and identify both testing procedures suitable to each function and problems that such testing faces |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
|
Distinguish between, and identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of, various standardized tests used to identify the causes of psychological and neuropsychological disorders |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
|
Distinguish between bias and unfairness in the use of psychological tests and compare procedures for assessing whether use of a given test is susceptible to each problem |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
|
Identify and distinguish between important ethical and legal issues in the use of psychological tests |
Multiple-choice exam questions |
5.0 EVALUATION
Grades in this course will be based on three multiple-choice exams: two in-class midterms plus a final exam scheduled by the Registrar. All material in the lectures and the assigned readings is fair game for an exam question. Exams are not cumulative.
Midterm #1 will be worth 25% of the final course grade.
Midterm #2 will be worth 35% of the final course grade.
The final exam will be worth 40% of the final course grade.
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf ):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
Midterm #1 – February 1 (in class)
Midterm #2 – March 15 (in class)
Final exam – scheduled by Registrar’s Office for a time and date during the mid-year exam period, April 14 – 30, 2018
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
|
|
Date |
Topic |
Readings |
|
1 |
Jan 11 |
History & Basic Statistics |
Ch. 1 & 2 |
|
2 |
Jan 18 |
Reliability |
Ch. 3 |
|
3 |
Jan 25 |
Validity |
Ch. 4 |
|
4 |
Feb 1 |
Midterm 1 (In class) |
Ch. 1 – 4 & lectures |
|
5 |
Feb 8 |
Creating Tests & Interviewing |
Ch. 5 & 6 |
|
6 |
Feb 15 |
Intelligence |
Ch. 7 |
|
7 |
Feb 22 |
Reading Week (no class) |
-- |
|
8 |
Mar 1 |
Guest lecture (TBA) |
-- |
|
9 |
Mar 8 |
Personality Assessment |
Ch. 8 |
|
10 |
Mar 15 |
Midterm 2 (in class) |
Ch. 5 – 8 & lectures |
|
11 |
Mar 22 |
Testing in the Workplace |
Ch. 9, 10 |
|
12 |
Mar 29 |
Health |
Ch. 11 |
|
13 |
April 5 |
Test Bias, Ethics, & Legal Issues |
Ch. 12, 13 |
|
14 |
TBA |
Final exam (scheduled by registrar) |
Ch. 9 – 13 & lectures |
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2017/pg954.html
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2017 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
