The psychology of "test" in a pyschology test?

[Sleepyjack]

ok, this is one, perhaps, for all the budding (or even developed ) pyschologists out there (ie not me ).

I got sent this pyschology test yesterday, about picking the difference between a genuine or a fake smile and even made a thread about it here. Anyway, i gave it to my brother to do and he did it as i sat next to him.

Now getting to the point of the thread, it was interesting to hear him say "Ok, i think i've done too many genuines, so i'll say that's a fake". I daresay that i was thinking something similar at the time of doing mine as well, as logically, there's probably gonna be a 50/50 split and if you feel you've done too many of one, you might try to compensate (even sub-consciously?).

Although, this was only the case for anything a bit iffy, in that if i was sure of something i'd never change it's outcome on some kind of predetermined logical probability of it's answers.

I guess i am doing the test incorrectly or not in the true spirit, but i was wondering if physcology test ever consider outside independant factors of a test, that could affect its outcome.

There's also the nature of a test in itself. Basically, i think, that whenever anyone hears test or conciously knows they're doing a test they intrisically try harder as well. Can this trying harder change or vastly affect their nature, maybe it's some state of mind thing?

So, in summation, are parameters and means of the test, of a pyscology test taken into account, for much? Are there some methods in testing to cull or nullify this effect on the test?

Just a bit of a paradoxal thing, i thought? Although i've never taken a pyschology course/unit before, so i could be way off

[Nisses]

I think in cases like that smile-test they would evaluate it case-by case, so not a total score, but per picture... And since not everybody is going to have that same thought at the same time, averages will cancel that effect out.

But on things like personalised tests, where in the end the result would tell you something detailed like IQ testing or whatever, this could probably be an issue...

Then again, they don't generally have questions that are true or false, so I dunno if the same problem will apply...

Gonna have to ask tonight, I know a few budding psychologists. Crazy people

[ARTelevision]

Sure, "...parameters and means of the test, of a (psychology) test are taken into account..." in research settings. Tests used for entertainment don't reveal a whole lot.

[zfleebin]

Theres no short answer to your question but I can give you some kinda answer. First off you asked "if phsychology tests ever consider outside independant factors of a test, that could affect its outcome." Yeah, we do those factors are called extraneous variables and we combat these by exerting our control over the situation.
Now, in the case of you and your brother changing your answers. We control for this too by using certain statistics to analyze the raw scores.
We are aware of 'test sophistication' and 'faking' and usually account for it by putting extra measures in the test to see how much a person is lying/ faking. I have my doubts though about this test to be honest with you because the way it is set up it doesnt appear to have much internal validity but you cant really expect much from internet psych tests. If you still feel I havent answered your question you can ask me to be more specific or you can look up some of the terms I said. Lets just say this stuff is kinda boring unless your into it.

[bermuDa]

I took a test in some weird subject in high school and almost every answer I got was C... I was close to changing my answers but I checked them and decided to leave it.

To my surprise, I aced the test, and a lot of people who had the same dilemma as me and changed their answers didn't do as well.

[amonkie]

Another way to help account for those type of issues is to have the test repeated. OVER and OVER and OVER again. I do a lot of research studies for the Air Force Research lab, and I'll often do the same studies 5-15 times, and they'll do their statistics things with all that raw data. It accounts for the newness factor, and also people tend to deviate towards the median over time.

[RoboBlaster]

zfleebin... are you in psychology?

[zfleebin]

I just took my first psych 381 principles of psychology test today.

[RoboBlaster]

Yeah, I have the equivalent of that course right now, too. The test I took today kicked my ass, though. Fortunately, from asking everyone else, it kicked everybody's ass. I suppose it does not have much discriminatory validity. Ha!

[amonkie]

Originally posted by RoboBlaster
Fortunately, from asking everyone else, it kicked everybody's ass. I suppose it does not have much discriminatory validity. Ha!

Just wait till you get to psych statistics! then the fun really begins mwahahaha.... ok, I need to get a life.

[Sleepyjack]

I think, if i wasn't doing software engineering, i'd want to do pyschology