Talk:Psychological testing

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[edit] Psychological Assessment - Psychological Testing

These two topics require seperate articles with cross-references between them. A test is a component of an assessment. they are not the same thing. Fremte 04:40, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Projective tests

It is simply false to say that projective tests "are less amenable to the development of norms." That statement reflects a fundamental lack of knowledge of research over the past 30 years on what have traditionally been called "projective" tests. The Rorschach is quite amenable to norms. And just because other projectives may not have adequate norms doesn't mean that they cannot have them just as easily as an "objective" test. Current researchers are working on better norms for the TAT. It is also misleading to make a blanket statement that "responses are most often qualitatively rather than quantitatively evaluated". The old concept of differences between "objective" and "projective" tests in terms of subjective (i.e., arbitrary) interpretation of responses by the examiner is quite outdated. The fundamental difference between the two types of tests is in the response process, not necessarily in the interpretive process. Tests like the MMPI-2 have a finite number of responses (i.e., "true" or "false"), whereas the Rorschach and the TAT have an open-ended response process. That difference does not necessarily mean that the examiner's interpretive process is arbitrary.

I will accept the statement that projectives are more time-consuming, although that is not always the case either.

I have no problem if an informed editor wishes to discuss the historical differences between "objective" and "projective" tests, but it must be done in an historical context, not as blanket statements which imply that the situation 30 years ago still exists today. Ward3001 (talk) 01:25, 17 November 2007 (UTC)