Library: Psychology: Tests & Measures

Using PsycNet to find Tests and Measures Information

PsycNet This link opens in a new window
PsycNet is a database from the American Psychological Association (APA). It includes citations and full text of book chapters, research articles from journals, conference presentations, book reviews in psychology, and some dissertations.

Searching PsycINFO’s Tests and Measures Field on APA PsycNet
In this video, you’ll learn how to use the Tests & Measures field in APA PsycInfo to look up information related to psychological tests and measures. By the end of this video you will be able to:
● Identify tests and measures on a specific topic
● Locate research that uses a particular test or measure

Evaluating Experiments

QALMRI instructions
Adapted nearly verbatim from: Kosslyn, S. M., & Rosenberg, R. S. (2001). Psychology: The Brain, The Person, The World. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
The QALMRI method provides a means for critically evaluating experiments, as well as for organizing your own experiment proposals. It helps you find connections between theory and data by making explicit the question being asked, the approach used to answer it, and the implications of the answer.

Tests and Measures Books in the Library

The Mental Measurements Yearbook
Call Number: BF431 .M549 (Reference for newest edition, stacks for older editions)
ISBN: 0910674582
Typical MMY test entries include descriptive information, one or two professional reviews, and reviewer references. To be reviewed in the MMY a test must be commercially available, be published in the English language, and be new, revised, or widely used since it last appeared in the MMY series.
Tests in Print
Call Number: BF176 .B96 (Reference)
ISBN: 0910674590
Tests in Print (TIP) serves as a comprehensive bibliography to all known commercially available tests that are currently in print in the English language. Now in its Seventh Edition, TIP provides vital information to users including test purpose, test publisher, in-print status, price, test acronym, intended test population, administration times, publication date(s), and test author(s). A score index permits users to identify what is being measured by each test. Tests in Print also guides readers to critical, candid test reviews published in the Mental Measurements Yearbook series

Here are some books in the library where you can find information about specific tests and measures used in research.

Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures by Bert A. Goldman; David F. Mitchell
Call Number: REFERENCE: BF431 .G625
ISBN: 9781433801372
Publication Date: 2007-08-15
Identifies and describes noncommercial psychological measures from the fields of psychology, sociology, and education that have been devised by researchers and published in 36 top journals. This volume lists tests published in the 2001-2005 issues of those journals.

Web Resources

ETS TestLink
The Test Collection at ETS is a database of more than 25,000 tests and other measurement devices most of which were created by authors outside ETS. It makes information on standardized tests and research instruments available to researchers, graduate students and teachers. With information about tests from the early 1900s to the present, the Test Collection at ETS is the largest compilation in the world.

Generally, most psychological tests are NOT available free online. The vast majority of them have been copyrighted. Sometimes you may be able to find a full measurement in a journal article, but frequently it will not have complete information on scoring. You can always consult the list of references at the end of a research article to see if the author cited another research article about the tests and measurements he/she used in the study. Finding that original article may provide you with detailed information about how the test was developed, how it is used, and may provide some example questions or perhaps even the entire measure.

The following Web Resources will provide you with another means of searching for the publisher of particular tests and measures as well as some more detailed information about how the tests should be used.

University of Miami, Psychology - Charles Carver
This is a collection of self-report measures for use free of charge. They have been compiled by Charles Carver at the University of Miami. Spanish translations are also available for several of the measures.