Psychology 2080B-001 (Online for 2020-21)
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 (2-hour Lectures/1-hour Virtual Q&A Sessions), 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Don Saklofske
Office Hours: By appointment Email: dsaklofs@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: Hiten Dave
Office Hours: By appointment Email: hdave7@uwo.ca
TIME & LOCATION OF CLASSES:
· LECTURES: Delivered asynchronously via course website (OWL). New lectures will be released every MONDAY at 10AM (EST).
· VIRTUAL Q&A SESSIONS: Delivered synchronously via Zoom, hosted by Instructor and/or TA. Sessions will be held on TUESDAYS @ 2PM (EST) and WEDNESDAYS @ 11AM (EST). Note: While these sessions are optional, you are encouraged to attend ONE of them that is convenient for you. They should be considered integral to this course as an opportunity to discuss and clarify course content and address questions that arise from lectures and textbook readings.
Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western
http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.
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 Student Accessibility Services (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) at 519-661-2147.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Psychological Testing: Principles, Applications, and Issues
Authors: Kaplan, R.M. & Saccuzzo, D.P. (2018) | Edition: 9th 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). Please DO NOT use older versions of this book.
As this class will be delivered online, the textbook (e-book) is available via the online Western Bookstore platform. To purchase, go to: https://bookstore.uwo.ca/product/cebcodeid34561. For any questions regarding purchasing, please contact the UWO bookstore directly at: book.store@uwo.ca
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 clinical, counseling, school/educational psychology, that draw from major psychological intelligence constructs including personality and intelligence.
· to ensure students understand important terms and concepts related to psychological measurement, with particular attention to the concepts of reliability and validity
· to acquaint students with important pitfalls in the testing and assessment 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
Assess key factors in test evaluation Biweekly Reflection Task
Identify various forms of assessment (e.g., interviewing,
administering various tests, psychological and behavioral
examinations) Multiple-choice exam questions
Distinguish between reliability and validity and other key
characteristics of tests; identify procedures for assessing each
characteristic, and compare methods and issues arising in those
procedures Psychometric Annotations 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
Discuss the value and limitations of psychological testing used
in various areas of psychological practice and beyond. Multiple-choice exam questions
Distinguish between, and identify the relative strengths and
weaknesses of, various standardized tests used to assess
human behavior Psychometric Annotations Multiple-choice exam questions
Understand the problems of 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 Multiple-choice exam questions
issues in the use of psychological tests
5.0 EVALUATION
5.1 BIWEEKLY REFLECTIONS (10%)
In approximately 100 words, identify one or two main “takeaway” points that you’ve learned over the past two weeks, as well as identify one area you may still be unclear on.
Reflections are due alternating THURSDAYS (by 5PM) and will be submitted via OWL. There are a total of 4 reflections in total throughout the term, and each reflection is worth 2% of your overall grade. Reflections will be graded out of 2.5 (0.5 = incomplete; 1.5 = partially complete; 2.5 = complete).
You will complete reflections on “odd” weeks:
· Week 3 – JAN 28
· Week 5 – FEB 11
· Week 9 – MAR 11
· Week 11 – MAR 25
·
*Note: Excludes Week 1 (no prior content) & Week 7 (Midterm & Reading Week in the weeks prior). No late assignments will be accepted unless there are exceptional circumstances.
5.2 PSYCHOMETRIC ANNOTATION (15%)
You will be responsible for completing one mini paper during the term. To complete this mini paper, you will need to identify a psychological instrument published in peer-reviewed journals and describe some of its basic psychometric features and uses, including:
· Description of the construct being assessed by the measure
· Summary of uses
· Notes on its reliability (see chapter 3)
· Notes on its validity (see chapter 4). [You may need to search for and reference some additional articles for this]
· Strengths and limitations
Each mini paper should be a maximum of 500 words and will be submitted via OWL. Your paper must be on either self-report measure or performance instrument (e.g., ability test). Examples of measures will be provided on OWL; however, you must pick a measure different from the examples posted. The purpose of the paper is to ‘evaluate the ‘quality’ of a test that includes examining reliability, validity and applications. Additional grading details will be provided on OWL.
This paper is due Monday March 8th (noon) and is worth 15% of your final grade. No extension will be granted unless there are exceptional circumstances.
5.3 EXAMS (75%)
· MIDTERM EXAM (35%): The midterm exam will consist of multiple-choice questions assessing your knowledge of the material from Weeks 1 – 5.
· FINAL EXAM (40%): The final exam will consist of multiple-choice questions assessing your knowledge of the material mainly from Weeks 8 – 13 and with a small number of questions tapping broader material common to the full class.
Additional details about the exam format (e.g number of test items, time allowance) and delivery will be provided in OWL as required before both exams. All material in the lectures and the assigned readings will form the content for the exams. The final exam will include a small number of items tapping the content of first exam but only insofar as those items reflect key content systemic to the full class.
Both exams will be ‘open-book and not proctored. The exam items will be linear so that you cannot return to a completed item. While the exams are open book, you will have a fixed time period to complete the exam; this will be announced prior to the exam. While the exam is open-book and unproctored, you should complete the assessment independently, by yourself. To ensure this, there will be multiple versions of the exam, questions will be presented in a random order, and you will not be able to go back to a question item once you have completed it.
Time will be fixed for each exam; it is anticipated that there will be 1.5 hours to complete the mid-exam and 2 hours for the final exam BUT this will be determined prior to each exam as a function of material covered and the integrity of the delivery of content. The exception to this would be for those who are registered with Accessible Education and are approved for an Accommodated format for exams. If your accommodation includes additional time to complete assessments, you will receive the appropriate additional time allotment in your exam link, as per the recommendations provided by Accessible Education (formerly SSD).
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% 2100-2990 level courses 75% 3000-level courses 80% 4000-level course
The Psychology Department follows Western’s 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
Final Grades will not be rounded; any rounding may occur within the course assignments and midterm exam. All exams must be written at the scheduled date/time unless exceptional circumstances occur.
6.0 ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE
MIDTERM: WEEK 6 (MONDAY FEB 22; TIME TO BE DETERMINED)
Details regarding specific time to be determined & will be released via OWL.
FINAL EXAM: FINAL EXAM PERIOD (April 14-30th)
The date and time will be scheduled by Registrar’s Office during the final exam period.
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Week Date Topic Lecture Readings
1 JAN 11 Course Introduction; History & Basic Statistics Lecture 1 Ch. 1 & 2
2 JAN 18 Reliability Lecture 2 Ch. 3
3 JAN 25 Validity Lecture 3 Ch. 4
4 FEB 1 Creating Tests & Interviewing Lecture 4 Ch.5 – 6
5 FEB 8 Creating Test and Interviewing cont.; Review of Chpts 1-6 content ** Lecture 5 Ch.5 – 6
6 FEB 15 Reading week N/A N/A
7 FEB 22 Midterm Exam Lectures 1 - 5 Ch. 1 – 6
8 MAR 1 Intelligence Lecture 6 Ch. 7
9 MAR 8 Intelligence cont.; Emotional intelligence Lecture 7 Ch. 7
10 MAR 15 Personality Assessment Lecture 8 Ch. 8
11 MAR 22 Special topics: Resiliency, Dark/light triad, Perfectionism, etc. Guest Lectures 9 N/A
12 MAR 29 Testing in Practice Lecture 10 Ch. 9 – 10
13 APR 5 Test Bias, Ethics, & Legal Issues Lecture 11 Ch. 11 – 12
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
Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.
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/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/Academic_Consideration_for_absences.pdf
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
If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:
- Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
- For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration;
For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation. The self-reported absence form may NOT be used for absences longer than 48 hours; coursework/tests/exams/etc., worth more than 30% of the final grade; or exams scheduled in the December or April final-exam periods: http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
Students seeking academic consideration:
- are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work;
- are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not normally an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence;
must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence
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
- 2020-2021 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute lecture notes, wiki material, and other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.
