Finding Psychological and Educational Testing Instruments

at Penn State Harrisburg Library

Finding psychological and educational tests instruments can make anyone "testy"!

This guide helps answer these basic questions:

• I’m looking for a test. I know the topic, but I don’t know the name of a specific test. Where should I start?

• Can you give me search tips for finding test information?

• Are there other resources for finding tests?

• How do I know whether this is a “good” or “bad” test … ?

• If I find a copy of a test, can I just go ahead and use it?

• How do I get in contact with the test author or publisher of a test?

• Why do I have to pay for copies of tests?

• I heard that the library has copies … is this true?

• Does the library have test scoring manuals I can borrow?

• Does the library have other information about administering tests?

• What if I want to design my own instrument?

• Can someone help me with research design and analysis?

• Are there rules, regulations, or guidelines … ?

• What if I’m not looking for a “test,” but I want info on a “classic” psych experiment?

• I’ve tried everything and nothing’s working !!!

Unfortunately, there is no database that provides free, full-text copies of psychological instruments. Yet, there could be hundreds of tests out there, depending on the people you want to assess, and what you want to learn about them. So your first step is to find basic information about available tests, to narrow yourself down to a few that are REALLY worth your time and money. Here are the most comprehensive sources that allow you to search by topic. They’ll give you basic information, like the test name, purpose, population, scoring system, validity, price, and publisher.

• Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY, 17 volumes), published by the Buros Institute (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1938-present. Call number REF BF431.M45). Volumes 9-17 are also available online from the “E-Resources List (A-Z)” list on the library’s home page, http://www.libraries.psu.edu.
• Tests: A Comprehensive Reference for Assessments in Psychology, Education, and Business, edited by Taddy Maddox (Austin, TX: Pro-Ed, 1983-present. Call number REF BF176.T43).

• Test Critiques (Austin, TX: Pro-Ed, 1984-present). Available in print at Penn State Harrisburg Library, call number REF BF176.T419. Similar to Tests: A Comprehensive Reference, but provides much more detail.

• Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI). Available online from the “E-Resources List (A-Z)” list on the library’s home page, http://www.libraries.psu.edu.

 Test instruments can be tricky to find, especially in the online version of MMY. Here are the most common problems:

• Some tests have abbreviations, popular names, and “official” or spelled-out names. For instance, one well-known test is referred to as the “MBTI,” “Myers-Briggs,” or the “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.” Try all these names in your searches.
• If you are getting TOO FEW results in your search, try related words. For instance, if you’d like to measure problem-solving ability in 16 to 21-year olds, try similar words like adolescents, or high school, or teenagers. Or, look for broader terms than “problem solving ability” (like behavior, intelligence, or personality).
• If you’re using a database, you’re finding TOO MANY results, and many of them seem irrelevant, the database might be searching the “full record” of each test (including every word mentioned in the description, critique, and bibliography!).  If you are using MMY or HaPI online, try clicking on the yellow “Index” tab at the top of the page. You can use the Index to search specific parts of each record, such as the “Acronym” or “Test Name” (such as MMPI), “Test Author” (Beck), or “Scoring” (motivation, rejection, etc.).
• Pay attention to ANY clues you find regarding the test, its author, or its publisher. If you can find them, take note of the corporation or university where the author works (including the name of the university and the academic department); the names of EVERY author who was involved in the development of the test; and the names, dates, and differences between alternative versions of the test.
• REMEMBER: MMY and HaPI will NOT give you a copy of the actual test. Instead, they provide important clues that will help you track it down. They usually give contact information for a company that distributes (sells) the test. Also, they may include a bibliography. In the bibliography, you might a book or journal article that includes a copy of the test or further clues about it.

Yes. University researchers, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, consultants, and others sometimes develop their own instruments. If they have published a journal article, research paper, book, or web page about their research, a copy of the testing instrument might be included in the text or in an appendix.

So how do you search for this stuff? There are several strategies:

• Find a journal article or study that used the test. There are two ways to do this:
  • Open PsycINFO (a database on Penn State's "E-Resources" list, http://www.libraries.psu.edu). Then, click on the green “Advanced Search” tab at the top of the screen. In the first search box, type in your topic or the name of the test (such as “personality” or “Myers Briggs”). Then, in the second search box, type in the word “appended,” and BEFORE YOU CLICK ON THE SEARCH BUTTON, change the “Anywhere” search to “Tests and Measures.” Then click on the “Search” button. Now, you should see a list of articles that include a copy of the test attached. (NOTE: in PsycInfo, there are only about 300 articles that are listed as having a “test appended.” Many more articles may include some test questions and other information in the text of the article).
  • If you can’t find an article that has an entire test “appended,” you can try to find research that used your test. In the search box, type in the name of the test, and change the “Anywhere” search to “Tests and Measures.” (NOTE: there’s no guarantee that the articles will include the test or test questions).
• Find a book on psychological assessment for the topic or population that interests you. At Penn State, you can find books by using the “Keyword” search in the library catalog (the CAT, http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/). Books on testing often have words like “assessment,” “instruments,” “measurement,” “researching,” “scaling,” or “testing” in the titles, chapter titles, subject headings, or description. If you’d like to search for these items, type in broad keywords (like “personality,” “women,” or “intelligence”), and add words like “assessment” or “measurement” to your search. Remember to “truncate” your search so that the catalog will find all forms of the root word. For instance, a CAT search for “assess?” will find books that have “assessment” or “assessing” in the title. In most databases, the truncation sign is either a question mark (?) or a star (*).
• Find a “directory” of “unpublished” tests. In terms of testing materials, "unpublished" means that the test is not produced commercially (but might appear in a book or journal article).
  • One free, online source is Helen Hough’s Tests and Measures in the Social Sciences available on the University of Texas at Arlington’s site, http://libraries.uta.edu/helen/test&meas/testmainframe.htm. This will refer you to more than 10,000 tests published in more than 100 different books.
  • Another resource is San Diego State University's Test Finder, at http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mstover/tests/. This is compiled by Mark Stover, and refers you to hundreds of tests not found in Helen Hough's work.
  • If you find a citation to a book in these sources, you can check the CAT (http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/) to see if Penn State owns it.
  • Another resource is the Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures (8 volumes, Washington, DC: APA, 1974-present). Penn State Harrisburg is missing volumes 5 and 7, but we have the others at call number REF BF431.G625. University Park has all volumes, including the most current one.  This directory lists instruments printed in about 35 of the top Psychology journals.
• Look in the catalog of a library that has a large test collection. One helpful resource is the Directory of Test Collections in Academic, Professional, and Research Libraries, by the Education and Behavioral Sciences section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (Chicago: American Library Association, 2001). Call number REF LB3051.D564 2001. This will tell you the self-reported strengths and weaknesses of other test collections in libraries throughout the United States, as well as whether the collections are open to the public. Unfortunately, no Pennsylvania libraries are listed in this directory!
• Try ETS. ETS (the same company that developed the SAT and the GRE) has one of the largest libraries of testing instruments. Its online library catalog, TestLink (http://www.ets.org/testlink) lists more than 25,000 tests. You can search TestLink by test author and title, and even purchase some copies of tests directly from ETS.
• Google. If the test you are looking for was created recently, there’s a chance that the author is still living and working somewhere. If you aren’t getting anywhere by searching the person’s name in Google.com (http://www.google.com), use Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). This limits your search to “scholarly” papers, articles, and web sites. Or, if the author teaches at a university, visit the university’s web page. You may be able to find his or her contact information in a campus “directory,” lists of “faculty,” or on the web page for his/her academic department.
• If you are interested in people’s attitudes toward education, health, race, or other social issues, Penn State also subscribes to several databases of public opinion polls. Polls are conducted by news agencies (such as NBC), political organizations, research institutes, and other organizations. They often measure the public’s views about controversial current issues, such as gay marriage or the war in Iraq. You can find these databases listed in the “E-Resources (A-Z)” list on the library’s home page, http://www.libraries.psu.edu. We currently subscribe to Gallup Brain (by the Gallup Organization), iPoll (by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research), Odum Institute’s Public Opinion Poll Question Database (by the Howard W. Odum Institute), and Polling the Nations. However, BEWARE that these databases contain poll questions and results going back to the 1930s, as well as recent surveys. Also, these databases do not provide information about whether the questions were valid or well-designed.

In sources like MMY, reviewers often discuss the “validity” of tests. According to the Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods, validity is “the extent to which any measuring instrument measures what it is intended to measure.” Validity is an important indication of whether a test will be useful. BUT as the Sage Encyclopedia explains, validity not only depends on the instrument itself, but HOW YOU USE the instrument. Even if a test is generally considered to be “valid,” it might not be applicable to the particular group, behavior, or situation you are trying to study (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004, p. 1171). At this point, the library doesn’t have staff with expertise to recommend or evaluate tests. It really depends on your project. So, contact your professor.

No. For one thing, some tests can only be purchased, administered, or interpreted by a licensed or certified professional. Even if you are qualified to administer the test, there are a lot of other things you may need to do first. These include, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

• Talking with your professor about whether the instrument is suitable for your project.

• Getting IRB approval for your project.

• Getting the author’s/publisher’s permission to use the test.

• Getting any training or certification that is required to administer the test properly.

• Recruiting test subjects in a proper and ethical manner.

• Finding an appropriate environment to test them.  

• Making arrangements for storing and analyzing your data.

• And more!!!

If your test was printed in a journal article or book, remember that many university professors have faculty web pages, and that many consultants and employees are listed on corporate web pages, or have posted resumes and other information on the Internet. So, look for the e-mail address or institutional affiliation of the author (often you can find it on the first or last page of a journal article, or on the jacket or back pages of a book). If you have the author’s name and his/her place of work, you can usually locate him/her by using a search engine like Google (http://www.google.com).

If your test is distributed by a publisher, it can be tough to find the current publisher, especially for older tests. This is because smaller publishing companies are constantly being bought out by larger corporations. Here are some of the well-known publishers and their web sites:

•  Academic Therapy Publications (special education), http://www.academictherapy.com

• Consulting Psychologists Press (MBTI, career/workplace tests), http://www.cpp.com/

• CTB/McGraw-Hill (educational tests), http://www.ctb.com/

• EdITS (career/workplace tests), http://www.edits.net/

• ETS (the SAT, GRE, and other educational tests), http://www.ets.org

• Harcourt Assessment (Wechsler, Stanford 10, and others), https://harcourtassessment.com/

• Hogrefe & Huber (various tests), http://www.hhpub.com/

• Human Resource Development Press (career/workplace tests), http://www.hrdpress.com/

• Multi-Health Systems, Inc. (various tests), http://www.mhs.com/

• Pearson Assessments (used to be American Guidance Service, focuses on behavioral and early childhood, http://www.pearsonassessments.com/)

• Pro-ED (learning disabilities/behavioral problems), http://www.proedinc.com/

• Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (various tests), http://www3.parinc.com/

• Ramsay Corporation (career/workplace tests), http://www.ramsaycorp.com/

• Riverside Publishing/Houghton Mifflin (educational tests), http://www.riverpub.com/

• Western Psychological Services (various tests), http://www.wpspublish.com/

A test’s design is a piece of intellectual PROPERTY, analogous in some ways to how a car is personal property. General Motors owns a Chevy truck until the truck is sold to a dealership, or sold to you. In a similar way, the person or company which creates the test OWNS the test, until he/she/it sells it to someone else.

Taking this example a step further, GM can manufacture a car model and sell the same car to numerous people for a certain price. Similarly, whoever owns the test design can choose to “publish” it by printing and selling copies.

Even if you see a car parked on the street, you still have to ask the owner whether you can drive it. Similarly with a test, if you see it in a journal, book, or on the Internet, you still have to GET PERMISSION to use it on clients or research subjects. A nice person may let you use his or her car for free, but companies like Budget or Enterprise make you pay rental fees! Similarly, many test publishers will make you pay to use their tests. 

Yes, HOWEVER, THESE TESTS CAN ONLY BE USED BY GRADUATE STUDENTS ON A PRE-APPROVED LIST. If you aren’t on the list, contact Dr. Kimberly Schreck (kas24(at)psu.edu), Dr. Thomas Bowers (dvo(at)psu.edu), or your professor.

The tests are located in Reserves, on the first floor of the library. We have copies of about 25 instruments, including Bayle, HRNB, KAAIT, MMPI-2, WAIS III, WISC III, WISC IV, and Woodcock-Johnson. You can borrow a test for 3 days.

You can find a list in the “course reserves” part of the library catalog (the CAT, at http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/). They are listed under:

• Instructor: “Schreck, Kimberly

• Course name: “Psychology Test Kits”

• Course number: “PSYC 101”

In general, no. Official manuals are often expensive, and should only be available to professionals. However, some commercial publishers have published “how to” guides and other information about popular tests. You can find some in the CAT, Penn State’s library catalog (http://cat.libraries.psu.edu).

One useful series of books is Wiley’s Essentials of … (series), edited by Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman. These provide notes on administering, scoring, interpretation, and reporting of various tests. The series includes volumes on:

• ...16PF (Harrisburg owns, BF698.8.S5C265 2003)

• …Assessment Report Writing (Harrisburg owns, RC469.E875 2004)

• …Behavioral Assessment (UP owns, BF722.3.R36 2002)

• …Career Interest Assessment (UP owns, HF5381.5.P75 2000)

• …CAS Assessment (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.D37N34 1999)

• …Child Psychopathology (Harrisburg owns, RJ499.W463 2005)

• …Cognitive Assessment with KAIT and other Kaufman Measures (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.K38L53 2000)

• …Cross-Battery Assessment (Harrisburg owns, BF431.F437 2001)

• …Individual Achievement Assessment (UP owns, LB3060.3.S62 2001)

• …Interviewing (Harrisburg owns, RC480.7.W54 2002)

• …KABC-II (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.K38E87 2005)

• …MMPI-II (UP owns, BF432.5.I55M33 2001)

• …MMPI-A (Shenango owns, RJ503.7.M56A729 2002)

• …Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Harrisburg owns, BF698.8.M94Q45 2000)

• …NEPSY Assessment (UP owns, RJ486.6.K46 2001)

• …Nonverbal Assessment (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.I55M33 2001)

• …Outcome Assessment (Harrisburg owns, RC480.75.O35 2002)

• …PAI Assessment (Harrisburg owns, RC473.P56M667 2003)

• …Processing Assessment (Harrisburg owns, BF431.D38 2006)

• …Psychological Testing (Harrisburg owns, BF176.U73 2004)

• …Research Design and Methodology (Harrisburg owns, BF76.5.M317 2005)

• …Rorschach (UP owns, BF698.8.R5R67 2001)             

• …Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (SB5) (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.S8R65 2004)

• …TAT and other storytelling techniques (UP owns, RC473.T48T44 2001)

• …WAIS-III (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.W4K385 1999)

• …WIAT-II and KTEA-II (Harrisburg owns, LB3060.33.W47L53 2005)

• …WISC-III and WPPSI-R (UP owns, BF432.5.W42K36 2000)

• …WISC-IV (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.W42F58 2004)

• …WJ-III Assessment of Achievement (UP owns, LB1131.75.W66M37 2001)

• …WJ-III Cognitive Abilities (UP owns, BF432.5.W66E88 2002)

• …WPPSI-III (Harrisburg owns, BF432.5.W424L53 2004)

Yes. Take a look at these:

• Comprehending Test Manuals: A Guide and Workbook, by Ann Corwin Silverlake (Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing, 1999). Call number BF176.S55 1999. If you need to improve your skills at determining test reliability, validity, or detecting bias, this is for you. Pryczak books provide word problems for you to get some practice. 

• Comprehensive Clinical Psychology: Volume 4, Assessment, edited by Cecil R. Reynolds (New York: Pergamon, 1998). Call number REF RC467.C597 1998 v.4. Provides almost 20 in-depth articles on various topics in clinical assessment, including clinical interviewing, behavioral assessment of children, forensic assessment, and more.

• Encyclopedia of Psychological Assessment (2 volumes), edited by Rocio Fernadez-Ballesteros (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003). Call number REF BF176.E53 2003. Discusses topics such as “Attachment,” “Identity Disorders,” and “Well-Being.” Articles typically give “a general conceptual and methodological overview, a section on relevant assessment devices, followed by links to related concepts and a list of references” [from back cover

• Handbook of Psychology: Volume 10, Assessment Psychology, edited by John R. Graham and Jack A. Naglieri (New York: Wiley, 2003). Call number REF BF121.H1955 2003 v.10. This volume is divided into three parts. Part one covers general topics relating to assessment, such as ethics and testing; clinical judgment; computerization; and training. Part two deals with assessment in various settings, such as mental health, correctional, and corporate organizations. Part three concerns methods, such as measuring personality or neuropsychological functioning. Each article is 20-30 pages long, and a solid introduction to the topic.

• Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods (3 volumes), edited by Michael S. Lewis-Beck and others (Thousand Oaks, CA: 2004). Call number REF H62.L456 2004. Explains broad concepts associated with quantitative and qualitative research, including concepts like “convenience sample,” “interviewer effects,” the “life story method,” and “scaling.” A great source if you’re new to psychological research.

Penn State University Libraries (including Harrisburg) have numerous books that can coach you in designing instruments. If you’ve never worked with tests and you want an easy-to-read introduction, try Neil Salkind’s Tests and Measurements for People Who Think They Hate Tests and Measurements (Sage, 2005. Call number LB3051.S243 2006). Another good book is Theresa J.B. Kline’s Psychological Testing: A Practical Approach to Design and Evaluation (Sage, 2005. Call number BF176.K583 2005). You can find other books in the library catalog, (the CAT, http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/) by searching for keywords like:

• "Methodology"

• "Research"

• "Qualitative"

• "Quantitative"

• "Social surveys"

• "Questionnaires"

• "Interviewing"

• "Experiments" OR "Experimental design"

 Yes. Try these:

• Penn State Harrisburg has a Center for Survey Research that provides limited, free service to students. See its web page at http://csr.hbg.psu.edu/ for more information.
• The Statistical Consulting Center at University Park offers some assistance in statistical analysis. It provides two short term consultations at no charge, one at the design stage and one at the analysis stage of Master’s research. Instead of traveling to University Park, you may be able to receive consultation on the phone; this would primarily depend on your questions and need related to your research. Each consultation consists of two meetings with a statistics graduate student enrolled in the center’s Consulting Practicum. The first meeting is intended for you to explain your project to the consultant and to identify your priorities in terms of assistance. The second meeting, scheduled for two weeks later, is for discussing the written recommendation report you will receive. The center does not analyze your data. The typical short-term project requires 10 hours of statistical effort. This effort consists of meeting, research, and documentation time. You can call the center at (814) 863-0281 or request a consultation at http://www.stat.psu.edu/~scc/request_for_consulting.htm. Please make sure that you check the “short-term consultation” box. “Long-term consultation” is not free.

Yes. Penn State, government agencies, and professional organizations all have rules and guidelines for psychological research. Here are SOME (BUT NOT ALL):

• Penn State REQUIRES you to take a training session, pass a test, and get university approval for your project BEFORE you do research using human participants. For more information, see the training offerings at Penn State’s Office for Research Protections site at http://www.research.psu.edu/orp/education/modules/index.asp.
• Pennsylvania has a State Board of Psychology which licenses psychologists and regulates practice in our state. Read Pennsylvania’s Professional Psychologists Practice Act (63 P.S. §§ 1201-1218) and Regulations of the State Board of Psychology, (49 PA CODE, Chapter 41).
• APA and the American Educational Research Association have Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, 1999. Call number LB3051.A683 1999). For more information about APA’s activities, see the APA Science Directorate’s page on testing at http://www.apa.org/science/testing.html.
• The Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education (a division of the American Counseling Association) has a statement on the Responsibilities of Users of Standardized Tests at http://aac.ncat.edu/documents/rust.html.

Are you an experimenter who wants to follow in the footsteps of Harry Harlow, Stanley Milgram, or Philip Zimbardo? Penn State Harrisburg Library has books that describe famous psychological experiments. Try these resources first, since each includes multiple experiments:

• Classic Case Studies in Psychology, by Geoff Rolls (London: Hodder Arnold, 2005). Call number RC465.R65 2005.

• Classic Experiments in Psychology, by Douglas G. Mook (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004). Call number BF198.7.M66 2004.

• Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research, by Roger R. Hock (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2005). Call number BF198.7.H63 2005.

• Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century, by Lauren Slater (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005). Call number BF198.7.S57 2005.

You can also search for books or journal articles about the PERSON who conducted the experiment. You might be able to find information ABOUT the person (biography), or something he or she WROTE. Here are some good resources:

• Biographical Dictionary of Psychology, by Neil Sheehy (New York: Routledge, 1997). Call number REF BF109.A1B56 1997).

• Encyclopedia of Psychology (8 volumes), by Alan Kazdin (Washington, DC: APA, 2000). Call number REF BF31.E523 2000.

•  Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology (6 volumes), by Gregory A. Kimble (Washington, DC: APA, 1991). Call number BF109.A1P67 1991.

• CAT, the library catalog. Available online at http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/. This is a searchable list of all the books Penn State University Libraries own. You can type in a person’s name (last name, first name) and choose the “author” search (to find books he or she wrote). Or, you can choose “subject” to find books written about that person.

•  PsycINFO, a database of articles from Psychology journals. Available online if you go to the “E-Resources List (A-Z)” on the Library’s home page (http://www.libraries.psu.edu).

Ask a librarian or your professor for help. A librarian will help you find information using tools on the Internet, in the Library, and other resources. On the other hand, you and your professor should work together in deciding which tests are most relevant to your research

Penn State Harrisburg’s Behavioral Sciences and Education Librarian is:

Bernadette A. Lear

(717) 948-6360

Penn State Harrisburg Library (office: room 102A)

351 Olmsted Dr.

Middletown, PA 17057

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Copyright 2006, Bernadette A. Lear. Please contact me for permission to use this page.