Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction to Tests and Measurement (Hardcover)

by Ronald Jay Cohen (Author), Mark E. Swerdlik (Author), Douglas K. Smith (Author) "All fields of human endeavor use measurement in some form, and each field has its own set of measuring tools and measuring units..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Everyday Psychometrics, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is a thoroughly updated revision of the most highly acclaimed and successful undergraduate measurement text in testing over the last fifteen years. "Psychological Testing and Assessment" examines the philosophical, historical, and methodological foundations of psychological testing, assessment, and measurement, while helping students appreciate their benefits and pitfalls in practice. The text's time-tested and trusted approach incorporates up-to-date research, insightful culture-related perspectives, engaging examples and illustrations, critical thinking questions, even humor to involve students and maintain interest. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 884 pages
• Publisher: Mayfield Pub Co; 2 Sub edition (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874849837
• ISBN-13: 978-0874849837
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,783,979 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a widely-used but poorly-written textbook, March 29, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction To Tests and Measurement (Hardcover)

This textbook covers a lot of material, but in an unsystematic way: the definitions are not worded in a predictable and consistent manner, the more important issues are not given priority over the less important ones, but everything is simply thrown together into an indigestible and boring glob.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A necessary evil, November 19, 2005

By	Natasha - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction To Tests and Measurement (Hardcover)

Unfortunately, I found the book a necessary evil. It was a required text for my Master's program tests and measurements course, otherwise, I would have never bought and read it. It does cover a lot of material, and I did receive a good understanding of what psychological testing and assessment is all about. But the style!.. It sometimes took me 4-5 attempts to read a passage and make sense out of it. Some chapters (like a Statistical Refresher) felt like the authors made their very best to make sure the readers won't understand a word. With a few exceptions of entertaining examples, the book is boring and is written in a very difficult language.

Another point - for the kind of price I expected the illustrations to be in color. Well, all illustrations (good thing, there are many of them, at least) are black & white with occasional pink.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource!, May 9, 2008

By	The Talk Doc "TalkDoc" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction To Tests and Measurement (Hardcover)

I was surprised to see this book ranked so poorly and then read the predominantly negative reviews of this book. As a psychology instructor and a PhD student I've found this book to be invaluable. It is an excellent introduction to the topic and although I have over a dozen reference tools on psychological assessment I frequently refer to this one when I need a concise definition or brief discussion of a topic. I recommend to my students who are headed to grad school to hang on to this text!