Customer Reviews

Psychological Testing

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This text is relatively complete and is an excellent reference for graduate level courses but is frustratingly difficult for undergraduates. For undergraduates, the text is obscure, difficult to understand, and lacks sufficient examples, underlining, italics, case boxes, and other reader's aids. Many of my brightest and best undergraduate students found it very difficult to summarize and retain information abstracted from the text. Most have been highly critical not only of the text but of the very poor selection of test items in the instructor's test bank. Many distractors are nonfunctional, the wording is vague, and the correct alternative is sometimes obscure even on open book/open note tests. It is paradoxical that a text in test theory and construction has produced a test bank with poorly constructed multiple choice items, as my classes have consistently demonstrated through item analysis using the principles outlined in the text! Second, in some areas the text is insufficiently complete for graduate students. Frequently, the authors mention new technologies or approaches but with sufficient lack of detail to be frustrating. Finally, the text suffers from antiquated language (e.g., sentences that begin with: "It will be remembered that ...") and excessive use of the passive voice, making the text unnecessarily difficult to understand.

In general, if technical information about Psychological Testing is what you are looking for and you have completed a masters program, this text may be perfect for you. Even thought my exposure to this text was for a undergraduate college class. I found it very hard to follow and understand even after the 3rd reading. I found that the material in the text was very in-depth, but lacking chapter conclusions or summaries.

Anastasi's orignal textbook is a difficult text book for any graduate student. Ms Urbina simplifies and gives examples of typical exam questions. It reviews the nature of psychological tests, statistical concepts in reliability, validity, item analysis, ability testing, personality testing, and finally a good section on the application of testing.

A must for any student of psychology!

Inappropriate for undergrads but ideal for grad students. Anastasi's classic text (now updated), has transformed generations of "intuitive" clinicians-in-training into serious behavioral scientists. Note that this is _not_ a great sourcebook for how to administer or evaluate _specific_ tests... Rather, it is an outstanding discussion of the science of assessment, e.g., in _general_, what would it mean for a questionnaire to be "valid"? Or, in _general_, what would it mean for a test to be "biased"?

After having studied Psychological Testing as a required textbook in an undergraduate course, I have repeatedly gone back to it (and its latest editions) to check on things I may have forgotten. I have often used it to learn the foundations of testing and have been able to devise and improve my own occasional tests, as well as to be able to evaluate tests I have seen elsewhere. Anyone using or reading any test at all needs to know the theory, and this book explains it fully, soundly, and well.

I am a graduate student, half-way through my program and this is not a good introduction to the subject of Psych Testing. The wording is vague, the text skips around so much that finding answers to even simple questions requires extensive hunting. It is unnecessarily difficult to understand. Our professor says it will be a good reference book down the road, but I intend to sell it the minute I've completed the course and then go on to find another book so that I can get a better handle on the subject

Different editions of this text were used in both my undergrad and graduate assessment classes. I wish I had kept it to refresh my memory occasionally. Some things are dry, no getting around it, but if you want to use assessments, you really need to understand the dry material so you don't misuse assessment tools.

This book contains the information needed to learn about how Psychological Testing works, but it's not intuitive and the writing is confusing. I wish my instructor would chosen a better book.

The print is small, the examples are few and not always very clear, and the writing is very dry and uninviting. It is not intuitively written, which makes self-instruction is much more difficult than it needs to be.

Like another reviewer, I wish my instructor had chosen another book. I am a graduate psych major and not a math major. Without layman's explainations of the importance and reasoning of the tests and correlations, much of it is quickly forgotten due to lack of meaning or use to me.

I am a graduate student in psychology, and this is the WORST textbook I have ever used. It is poorly written, confusing, and doesn't define clearly even the most simple concepts it is trying to explain. I have to go online to look up definitions and concepts.