Osgood's factor analyses of the semantic differential identified three dimensions of meaning. Which set is correct?

Extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism

Fluency, flexibility, originality

A neuropsychologist wants to assess a patient's ability to shift mental set and to detect perseveration, functions associated with the frontal lobes. The most suitable test is:

Seashore Measures of Musical Talents

The MMPI's original clinical scales were constructed chiefly by:

Factor analysis of trait adjectives

Projective interpretation of ambiguous stimuli

Which of the following are genuine features of computerised adaptive testing? Select all that apply.

It usually rests on item response theory

It can reach a precise ability estimate with fewer items than a fixed test

The next item depends on the candidate's responses so far

It usually rests on item response theory

It can reach a precise ability estimate with fewer items than a fixed test

The next item depends on the candidate's responses so far

Every candidate must answer exactly the same items in the same order

Which projective test asks the respondent to tell stories about ambiguous pictures, scored for needs and press?

Bender Visual–Motor Gestalt Test

Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study

Assertion (A): The ratio IQ is unsuitable for adults. Reason (R): Mental age stops increasing in late adolescence while chronological age continues to rise. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Psychological Testing II: Areas of Testing — Intelligence, Creativity, Neuropsychological, Aptitude, Personality and Interest; Attitude Scales; Computer-Based Testing; and Applications in Clinical, Organizational, Educational, Counselling and Military Settings

The second half of Unit 3 reads: "Areas of testing: Intelligence, creativity, neuropsychological tests, aptitude, Personality assessment, interest inventories. Attitude scales – Semantic differential, Staples, Likert scale. Computer-based psychological testing. Applications of psychological testing in various settings: Clinical, Organizational and business, Education, Counseling, Military. Career guidance." The document prints "Staples"; the scale meant is the Stapel scale, named after Jan Stapel, and it is taught under that name here. The chapter names the standard instruments in each area with their authors and what they yield, sets the four classic attitude-scaling methods beside the three the syllabus lists, and explains how computerised adaptive testing works.

1. Intelligence and creativity tests

Intelligence and creativity instruments
Test	Key facts
Binet–Simon scale (1905)	The first practical intelligence test, built to identify children needing special education in France; introduced mental age.
Stanford–Binet (Terman, 1916)	Popularised the ratio IQ = (MA ÷ CA) × 100, an idea from William Stern; later editions (fifth, 2003) use deviation IQs.
Wechsler scales (WAIS, WISC, WPPSI)	Deviation IQ (mean 100, SD 15); verbal and performance subtests, now reported as index scores such as verbal comprehension, working memory and processing speed. Indian adaptations include Malin's Intelligence Scale for Indian Children.
Raven's Progressive Matrices	Non-verbal matrices measuring eductive ability, close to Spearman's g; Standard, Coloured and Advanced forms.
Performance batteries	Bhatia's Battery of Performance Tests (India), Goodenough's Draw-a-Man test (1926, later Goodenough–Harris).
Creativity tests	Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (verbal and figural; scored for fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration); Guilford's divergent-production tasks (unusual uses); Wallach and Kogan's untimed, game-like tasks; Mednick's Remote Associates Test; in India, Baqer Mehdi's verbal and non-verbal tests of creative thinking.

🧠 Ratio IQ, worked

A child of 8 with a mental age of 10 has a ratio IQ of (10 ÷ 8) × 100 = 125. Ratio IQ fails for adults because mental age stops rising while chronological age does not — which is why Wechsler introduced the deviation IQ.

2. Neuropsychological, aptitude, personality and interest measures

Instruments by area
Area	Instruments and what they assess
Neuropsychological	Halstead–Reitan and Luria–Nebraska batteries (comprehensive); Bender Visual–Motor Gestalt Test; Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (set-shifting and perseveration — frontal executive function); Trail Making Test A and B; the Stroop test; Benton Visual Retention Test; Wechsler Memory Scale; the Mini-Mental State Examination (a 30-point screen); in India the PGI Battery of Brain Dysfunction and the NIMHANS neuropsychological battery.
Aptitude	Differential Aptitude Tests (Bennett, Seashore and Wesman: verbal reasoning, numerical ability, abstract reasoning, clerical speed and accuracy, mechanical reasoning, space relations, spelling, language usage); the General Aptitude Test Battery; special aptitudes such as the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents and the Minnesota Clerical Test.
Personality — inventories	MMPI (Hathaway and McKinley, 1943; empirical criterion keying; ten clinical scales and validity scales L, F and K; revised as MMPI-2 and MMPI-3); Cattell's 16PF (factor-analytic); Eysenck's EPQ (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, lie scale); Costa and McCrae's NEO-PI-R (the Big Five with 30 facets); the California Psychological Inventory.
Personality — projective	Rorschach inkblots (1921; ten cards; Exner's Comprehensive System); Thematic Apperception Test (Murray and Morgan, 1935; stories to ambiguous pictures, scored for needs and press); Children's Apperception Test (Bellak); sentence completion (Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank); Draw-a-Person; Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study.
Interest inventories	Strong Interest Inventory (from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank, 1927); Kuder Preference Record; Holland's Self-Directed Search, based on the six RIASEC types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional); in India, Chatterji's Non-Language Preference Record.

⚠️ Empirical keying is not face validity

MMPI items were kept if they distinguished clinical groups from controls, whatever their content — an item need not "look like" depression to be on the depression scale. That is empirical criterion keying, the opposite of the rational (content-based) approach.

3. Attitude scales: semantic differential, Stapel and Likert — and the classic methods

Attitude scales
Scale	Construction and format
Semantic differential (Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum, 1957)	The concept is rated on a series of seven-point bipolar adjective scales (good–bad, strong–weak, active–passive). Factor analysis yields three dimensions of meaning: evaluation, potency and activity; evaluation carries the attitude.
Stapel scale (printed "Staples" in the syllabus)	A unipolar variant of the semantic differential: a single adjective is placed in the centre and rated from +5 to −5 (ten points, no zero). It needs no pair of opposites, so it is easy to write and to administer by telephone.
Likert (1932): summated ratings	Statements rated on a five-point agree–disagree scale; negatively worded items are reverse-scored and the ratings summed. Items are chosen by item analysis (each item's correlation with the total, or the upper–lower difference). No judges are needed.
Thurstone (1928–29): equal-appearing intervals	Many judges sort statements into eleven piles from most unfavourable to most favourable; each statement's scale value is the median of its placements, and ambiguous statements (a large Q) are discarded. Respondents endorse statements; their score is the median scale value of those endorsed.
Guttman scalogram	Cumulative items: endorsing a strong item implies endorsing all weaker ones; the coefficient of reproducibility should be at least 0.90.
Bogardus social distance scale (1925)	Degrees of acceptable closeness to a group, from "close kinship by marriage" to "exclude from my country" — a cumulative scale of prejudice.

ℹ️ The misprint

The official document writes "Staples". No attitude scale of that name exists; the scale listed alongside the semantic differential and the Likert scale in every measurement text is the Stapel scale, developed by Jan Stapel.

4. Computer-based testing and applications

Computer-based testing ranges from paper tests transferred to a screen to computerised adaptive testing. In adaptive testing, built on item response theory, the computer estimates the candidate's ability after each response and selects the next item to be most informative at that level — harder after a correct answer, easier after a wrong one — stopping when the estimate is precise enough. Adaptive tests are shorter, equally precise across ability levels, scored instantly and more secure, because candidates see different items. The problems are the equivalence of computer and paper versions, computer anxiety and unequal digital access, test security on the internet, and the uncritical use of computer-based test interpretation reports.

Applications of testing
Setting	Typical uses
Clinical	Diagnosis and treatment planning, severity and outcome measurement, neuropsychological assessment after injury or in dementia, forensic questions.
Organizational and business	Personnel selection and placement, assessment centres (in-basket, group discussion, role play), 360-degree appraisal, training needs, leadership development.
Education	Achievement, diagnostic and readiness testing, identifying learning disability and giftedness, placement.
Counselling and career guidance	Aptitude, interest and personality profiles matched to educational and occupational options (Holland's person–environment fit).
Military	Group testing began with the Army Alpha (verbal) and Army Beta (non-verbal, for non-readers) under Yerkes in 1917; today's services use aptitude batteries and, for officer selection, psychological tests such as the TAT, word association and situation reaction tests together with group tasks and interviews.

Key takeaways

Binet–Simon (1905) introduced mental age, Terman's Stanford–Binet the ratio IQ (MA ÷ CA × 100), and Wechsler the deviation IQ (mean 100, SD 15); Raven's matrices are a non-verbal measure close to g.
Creativity tests score fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration (Torrance); neuropsychological tests include Halstead–Reitan, Luria–Nebraska, Bender Gestalt and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test for executive function.
Personality is assessed by inventories (MMPI by empirical keying, 16PF, EPQ, NEO-PI-R) and projective techniques (Rorschach, TAT); interests by Strong, Kuder and Holland's RIASEC.
The semantic differential uses bipolar adjectives (evaluation, potency, activity); the Stapel scale — printed "Staples" in the syllabus — a single central adjective rated +5 to −5; Likert summates agree–disagree ratings; Thurstone uses judges and eleven piles.
Computerised adaptive testing selects each item from the running ability estimate using item response theory; testing serves clinical, organizational, educational, counselling and military purposes.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

A child aged 8 years has a mental age of 10 years. What is the child's ratio IQ? Type a number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 125
Ratio IQ = (MA ÷ CA) × 100 = (10 ÷ 8) × 100 = 125. The child performs at the level of children two years older.
An attitude scale in which a single adjective is placed at the centre and respondents rate the object from +5 to −5, with no zero point, is the:
1. Likert scale
2. Stapel scale
3. Semantic differential
4. Guttman scalogram
Show answer
Answer: B — Stapel scale
That is the Stapel scale — the scale the syllabus prints as "Staples". The semantic differential uses bipolar adjective pairs, the Likert scale agree–disagree ratings, and the Guttman scale cumulative items.
Osgood's factor analyses of the semantic differential identified three dimensions of meaning. Which set is correct?
1. Extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism
2. Cognition, affect, behaviour
3. Fluency, flexibility, originality
4. Evaluation, potency, activity
Show answer
Answer: D — Evaluation, potency, activity
The semantic differential's three factors are evaluation (good–bad), potency (strong–weak) and activity (active–passive). The ABC components describe attitudes generally, fluency–flexibility–originality are creativity scores, and E–N–P are Eysenck's dimensions.
In constructing a Thurstone attitude scale, into how many piles do judges sort the statements? Type a number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 11
Thurstone's method of equal-appearing intervals uses eleven piles from most unfavourable to most favourable; each statement's scale value is the median pile it is placed in.
A neuropsychologist wants to assess a patient's ability to shift mental set and to detect perseveration, functions associated with the frontal lobes. The most suitable test is:
1. Thematic Apperception Test
2. Seashore Measures of Musical Talents
3. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
4. Strong Interest Inventory
Show answer
Answer: C — Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
In the WCST the sorting rule changes without warning, and continuing to sort by the old rule (perseverative errors) is characteristic of frontal executive dysfunction. The TAT is projective, the Strong measures interests, and the Seashore measures musical aptitude.
The MMPI's original clinical scales were constructed chiefly by:
1. Empirical criterion keying
2. Factor analysis of trait adjectives
3. Projective interpretation of ambiguous stimuli
4. Thurstone scaling by judges
Show answer
Answer: A — Empirical criterion keying
Hathaway and McKinley kept items that statistically separated diagnosed patient groups from normal controls, regardless of content. Factor analysis underlies the 16PF and NEO-PI-R, and projective interpretation the Rorschach and TAT.
Which of the following are among Holland's six RIASEC interest types? Select all that apply.
1. Neurotic
2. Enterprising
3. Conventional
4. Investigative
Show answer
Answer: B — Enterprising; C — Conventional; D — Investigative
RIASEC stands for realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. "Neurotic" is a personality dimension, not an interest type.
Which of the following are genuine features of computerised adaptive testing? Select all that apply.
1. It usually rests on item response theory
2. It can reach a precise ability estimate with fewer items than a fixed test
3. The next item depends on the candidate's responses so far
4. Every candidate must answer exactly the same items in the same order
Show answer
Answer: A — It usually rests on item response theory; B — It can reach a precise ability estimate with fewer items than a fixed test; C — The next item depends on the candidate's responses so far
Adaptive testing selects items from an IRT-calibrated bank and stops once the estimate is precise, so it is shorter than a fixed test. Different candidates see different items, which is the opposite of the third option.
Which projective test asks the respondent to tell stories about ambiguous pictures, scored for needs and press?
1. Bender Visual–Motor Gestalt Test
2. Thematic Apperception Test
3. Rorschach inkblot test
4. Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study
Show answer
Answer: B — Thematic Apperception Test
Murray and Morgan's TAT (1935) uses story-telling to ambiguous scenes, interpreted through Murray's needs and environmental press. The Rorschach uses inkblots, the Bender is a visual–motor copying test, and the Rosenzweig uses cartoon frustration situations.
Assertion (A): The ratio IQ is unsuitable for adults. Reason (R): Mental age stops increasing in late adolescence while chronological age continues to rise. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
Both are true and R explains A: with MA fixed and CA rising, (MA ÷ CA) × 100 would fall every year for a person whose ability had not changed, which is why deviation IQs are used.