Week 1 Assignment: Test Development Proposal: Step One
Throughout the course, students will conduct research on instruments that are currently used to measure a particular construct, develop a new instrument to measure that construct, administer the instrument to participants, and report on data arising from those administrations. Students are free to select any construct of their interest, such as some ability, a personality construct, or any kind of attitude or belief.
Over the six-week course, students will select a construct of interest (such as depression, anxiety, job satisfaction, etc.), conduct research on other popular instruments used to measure the same or similar construct, develop a 12-15 item instrument, administer the instrument to three to five participants, discuss the methods used to administer the instrument, provide a strengths and weaknesses/limitation section regarding the development of the instrument, and discuss ways to increase the reliability and validity of the instrument.
This assignment is the first step toward completing your Test Development Proposal in Week 6. Select a construct of interest (e.g. depression, anxiety, self-esteem, marital satisfaction, social persuasion, job satisfaction, etc.) that you are interested in (this can include an area of interest for your dissertation as well) and using the test publisher websites (i.e. Pearson Assessments, Western Psychological Services (WPS), etc.) provided in the week’s readings (or through other sources such as articles, test reviews, etc. found in the University of Arizona Global Campus library), compile a list of currently available standardized tests/instruments that purport to measure the construct (between five and seven tests/instruments is adequate). Provide a brief summary of your construct of interest and the tests/instruments available that measure it. Write a two-three page paper, not including the Title and References page (an Abstract page is not required for this assignment), on the following:
Concerning your construct of interest:
- Explain your construct of interest. Make a case for why this construct is important to you, the field of psychology, or your specialization area.
- What specifically about your construct are you wanting to assess? Are there different characteristics or behaviors that can be assessed within your construct? For example, if measuring depression as a construct, would you want to measure the severity of depression or the symptoms related to depression? What are all the characteristics of depression? Would you be assessing all of the characteristics?
- Develop a research question addressing what you will be assessing.
Concerning available tests/instruments:
- What is the validity and reliability of each test/instrument?
- What types of scores and scales are provided?
- What information does the test publisher (or other source) provide about each of the test’s/instrument’s strengths and weaknesses/limitations?
Tutorial for Test Development Proposal: Step One
