There are several broad categories of psychological tests: Achievement tests Achievement tests are tests that assess an individual's knowledge in a subject domain. Academic achievement tests are designed to be administered by a trained evaluator to an individual or a group of people. During achievement tests, a series of test items is presented to the person being evaluated. A score on a test is believed to reflect achievement in a school subject. Many achievement tests are norm-referenced. The person's responses are scored according to standardized protocols and the results can be compared to the responses of a norming group after the test is completed. Some achievement tests are criterion referenced, the purpose of which is find out if the test-taker mastered a predetermined body of knowledge rather than to compare the test-taker to everyone else who is taking the test. The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement is an example of an individually administered achievement test for students. Aptitude tests Psychological tests have been designed to measure specific abilities, such as clerical, perceptual, numerical, or spatial aptitude. Sometimes these tests must be specially designed for a particular job, but there are also tests available that measure general clerical and mechanical aptitudes, or even general learning ability. An example of an occupational aptitude test is the Minnesota Clerical Test, which measures the perceptual speed and accuracy required to perform various clerical duties. A widely used aptitude test in business is the Wonderlic Test. There are aptitudes that are believed to be related to specific occupations and are used for career guidance as well as selection and recruitment. Evidence suggests that aptitude tests like IQ tests are sensitive to past learning and cannot avoid measuring past achievement, although they were once thought to measure untutored ability. The SAT, which used to be called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, had its named changed because performance on the test is sensitive to training. Attitude scales An attitude scale assesses an individual's disposition regarding an event (e.g., a Supreme Court decision), person (e.g., a governor), concept (e.g., wearing face masks during a pandemic), organization (e.g., the Boy Scouts), or object (e.g., nuclear weapons) on a unidimensional favorable-unfavorable attitude continuum. Attitude scales are used in marketing to determine individuals' preferences for brands. Historically social psychologists have developed attitude scales to assess individuals' attitudes toward the United Nations and race relations. Typically Likert scales are used in attitude research. Historically, the Thurstone scale was used prior to the development of the Likert scale. The Likert scale has largely supplanted the Thurstone scale. Biographical Information Blank The Biographical Information Blanks or BIB is a paper-and-pencil form that includes items that ask about detailed personal and work history. It is used to aid in the hiring of employees by matching the backgrounds of individuals to requirements of the job. Clinical tests The purpose of clinical tests is to assess the presence of symptoms of psychopathology . Examples of clinical assessments include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV, Child Behavior Checklist, Symptom Checklist 90 and the Beck Depression Inventory. Clinical tests like the MMPI are also norm-referenced, with 50 the middlemost score on a symptom subscale such as the Depression scale and 60 a score that places the individual one standard deviation above the mean for the symptom scale. Criterion-referenced A criterion-referenced test is an achievement test in a specific knowledge domain. An individual's performance on the test is compared to a criterion. Test-takers are not compared to each other. A passing score, i.e., the criterion performance, is established by the teacher or an educational institution. Criterion-referenced tests are part and parcel of mastery based education. Direct observation Psychological assessment can involve the observation of people as they complete activities. This type of assessment is usually conducted with families in a laboratory or at home. Sometimes the observation can involve children in a classroom or the schoolyard. The purpose may be clinical, such as to establish a pre-intervention baseline of a child's hyperactive or aggressive classroom behaviors or to observe the nature of a parent-child interaction in order to understand a relational disorder. Time sampling methods are also part of direct observational research. The reliability of observers in direct observational research can be evaluated using Cohen's kappa. The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA) is an example of a direct observation procedure that is used with school-age children and parents. The parents and children are video recorded playing at a make-believe zoo. The Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment is used to study parents and young children and involves a feeding and a puzzle task. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB) is used to elicit narratives from children. The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-II tracks the extent to which children follow the commands of parents and vice versa and is well suited to the study of children with Oppositional Defiant Disorders and their parents. Interest inventories Psychological tests include interest inventories. These tests are used primarily for career counseling. Interest inventories include items that ask about the preferred activities and interests of people seeking career counseling. The rationale is that if the individual's of activities and interests is similar to the modal pattern for people who are successful in a given occupation, then the chances are high that the individual would find satisfaction in that occupation. A widely used interest test is the Strong Interest Inventory, which is used in career assessment, career counseling, and educational guidance. Neuropsychological tests Neuropsychological tests are designed to be an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior. Norm-referenced tests Items on norm-referenced tests have been tried out on a norming group and scores on the test can be classified as high, medium, or low and the gradations in between. These tests allow for the study of individual differences. Scores on norm-referenced achievement tests are associated with percentile ranks vis-á-vis other individuals who are the test-taker's age or grade. Personality tests Personality tests assess constructs that are thought to be the constituents of personality. Examples of personality constructs include traits in the Big Five, such as introversion-extroversion and conscientiousness. Personality constructs are thought to be dimensional. Personality measures are used in research and in the selection of employees. They include self-report and observer-report scales. Examples of norm-referenced personality tests include the NEO-PI, the 16PF, the OPQ, and the FFPI-C. The IPIP scales are assess the same personality traits that the NEO and the other scales assess but IPIP scales and items are available free of charge. Projective tests Projective<unk>  originated in the first half of the 1900s. Examples of projective tests are story-telling, drawings, or sentence-completion tasks. Public safety employment tests Vocations within the public safety field (i.e., fire service, law enforcement, corrections, emergency medical services) often require Industrial and Organizational Psychology tests for initial employment and advancement throughout the ranks. The National Firefighter Selection Inventory - NFSI, the National Criminal Justice Officer Selection Inventory - NCJOSI, and the Integrity Inventory are prominent examples of these tests.
Psychological testing
Clinical neuropsychology
Psychiatric assessment
Integrated cognitive assessment
Sleep study
Sleep diary
Psychoanalysis
Neuropsychological test