2080A-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:     Dr. Patrick Brown

Office and Phone Number: SSC 7328 / Ext. 84680

Office Hours:  Tuesdays 1:30 – 3:30

Email:   brown5@uwo.ca

Teaching Assistant: TBA

Office:  Office Hours: Email:

Time and Location of Classes:   Monday 7:00 – 10:00 pm / SH-3345


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. (2009) Psychological Testing Principles, Applications, and Issues. 8th Edition. (Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth). (Note: this is a special edition of the text printed for this course, and should have the words “Psychology 2080 A/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

By the end of this course, the successful student should be able to:

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


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

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.



6.0  TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

Midterm #1 – October 3 (in class) Midterm #2 – November 7 (in class)

Final exam – scheduled by Registrar’s Office for a time and date during the mid-year exam period, December 10 – 21, 2016


7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

Date

Topic

Text chapters

 

Sept 12

Sept 19

 

History and basic statistics Reliability

 

1 & 2

4

Sept 26

Validity

5

October 3            Midterm #1 – Chapters 1, 2, 4, & 5 + corresponding lectures

Oct 10

Thanksgiving – no class

 

Oct 17

Creating tests and Interviewing

6 & 8

Oct 24

Intelligence (1)

9

Oct 31

Intelligence (2)

10

November 7        Midterm #2 – Chapters 6, 8, 9, 10 + corresponding lectures

Nov 14

Testing in the workplace

16 & 18

Nov 21

Health

17

Nov 28

Test bias

19

Dec 5

Ethics and legal issues

21

Final Exam – Scheduled by Registrar – Chapters 16 – 19, 21 plus corresponding 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://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2016/pg117.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
- 2016 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during exams.