A guide to finding and using existing tests and scales

A colleague (Clare Bradley, an eminent health psychologist) once remarked in conversation that psychologists would rather use each others’ toothbrushes than each others’ measures.

All too true? Very often, it seems that one’s research problems cannot be resolved by using any existing measure. None of the measures are quite right. But equally often, it seems that there is duplication of effort in test development. Here, for instance, a historian justly complains about the diversity of measures used by eminent social scientists over a nine-year period, in a series of studies to assess anti-Semitism (Dawidowicz, 1977, p. 193):

Unfortunately, no-one thought to draw up a uniform scale that might be applied to all the surveys... Christian Beliefs and Anti-Semitism (Glock & Stark, 1966) used six items for its index; The Apathetic Majority (Glock, Selznick & Spaeth, 1966), three; Protest and Prejudice (Marx, 1967), nine; The Tenacity of Prejudice (Selznick & Steinberg, 1969), eleven (seven of Marx’s items were the same as Selznick and Steinberg’s). IVayward Shepherds (Stark, Foster, Glock & Quinley, 1971) changed the ground rules and formulated an index that differed from the one used in Christian Beliefs and Anti-Semitism (its predecessor). The antisemitism index in Adolescent Prejudice (Glock, Wuthnow, Piliavin & Spencer, 1975) consisted of eight items, a few similar to, but none identical with, the eleven-item index in Selznick and Steinberg. Of the various authors, Marx alone employed ‘positive’ items - that is, items favourable toward Jews.

This section describes how to go about discovering whether you are in danger of wasting time by re-inventing a psychometric wheel that is already rolling along beautifully. It is better to try to avoid causing complaints like the one just quoted.

Finding the scale

Following is a list of suggested steps to take to locate an existing measure. If you find something suitable in the earlier stages, the later stages in the search can be omitted.

• 1. Make a note of possible keywords covering the content of what you want to assess.
• 2. Make a note of key features the measure should have, such as type of reliability, type of validity, type of item, etc.
• 3. Use one or more of the following to identify potential suitable measures:
  • • Look at Appendix 2, which is a brief review of some popular classical measures.
  • • Try any available stock of measures and tests in your place of work or study.
  • • Ask colleagues and acquaintances.
  • • Search one or more academic journal databases, particularly PsycINFO, WoS (Web of Science/Social Sciences), and Google Scholar. PsycINFO is the most likely database for discovery of less well-known psychological measures. It gives author, title and publication details, and an abstract. WoS (Social Sciences) and Google Scholar are other possible sources. Both of the latter occasionally offer full-text versions of articles. The simplest way to use these databases is to search for the topic(s) and/or author(s) that you want. It will tell you how many abstracts it has found with the word(s) you told it to look for. If you give it a ‘big’ topic, like depression or memory, there will be too many for you to look through so you can narrow it down by telling it to look for, say, depression and chronic and adolescents, or memory and episodic - or whatever your focus is. Ideally you want everything that has been published on your topic without having to wade through too much irrelevant material. When you find something that is on target, make a note of the details and track down the publication in your library - which will carry online versions of many journals. You may have access to other libraries. You can print, download or email the results of your searches for future reference.
  • • Note that there is no general public access to PsycINFO and WoS. Access must be made through a university or other subscribing institution. Normally, library services can advise on how to gain access if you are a new user. Google Scholar allows public access and often gives good results.

A useful resource for test selection is the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Psychological Testing Centre (PTC) website (http://www. psychtesting.org.uk/blog$.cfm/2011/3/24/Find-out-more-about-Test-Reviews-and-Test-Registration). This website offers access to a list of psychological tests that have met the society’s standards and gives a good indication of the range of tests available. The list includes descriptions of the tests and access (for BPS members, or registered test users, or upon payment) to reviews of many of the tests.

GL Assessment is a useful open-access catalogue of educational and educationally relevant psychological tests, well-organised, with links to relevant research. Institutions and individuals using this organisation will need to buy licences giving access to tests and software. Use of some of the measures may require training (https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk).

You may have access to a library with a recent hard copy of Tests in Print. According to the Buros Center for Testing (https://buros. org/tests-print),

Tests in Print (TIP) serves as a comprehensive bibliography to all known commercially available tests that are currently in print in the English language. Now in its ninth edition (2016), TIP provides vital information to users including test purpose, test publisher, in-print status, price, test acronym, intended test population, administration times, publication date(s), and test author(s). A score index permits users to identify what is being measured by each test. Tests in Print also guides readers to critical, candid test reviews published in the Mental Measurements Yearbook series.

There is a useful search engine for test reviews, and useful lists of tests which have online reviews, but one has to pay to see the actual reviews. The actual tests must be bought from the test publishers.

The Mental Measurements Yearbook is now in its twentieth edition (2017) and is available in electronic form. This should be accessible through a university library (https://buros.org/ mental-measurements-yearbook).

The Assessment Psychology website (http://www.assessment psychology.com/index.htm) offers a range of information particularly relating to testing in the clinical context, with particular focus on neurocognitive and psychiatric assessment. The website awaits further updating as a result of changes proposed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). However, most tests will require little or no change. The most useful menu items appear under ‘Assessment’, including the following:

Assessment Resources: Useful lists and links to test publishers, professional associations and other sources of legal and professional information are offered.

Psychological Tests: There are links here to information on a number of tests. The focus is on tests for clinical psychologists and medical practitioners.

• • Value Options (http://www.valueoptions.com/providers/Forms/ Clinical/List_of_Psychological_Tests.pdf) offers a list of health-and mental-health-related psychological tests. The listing indicates the type of test (personality, developmental, behaviour rating), appropriate ages of testees and the time involved in administration and scoring. There are further brief comments on some tests.
• • Other collections of test reviews and directories include the following:
  • - Maltby et al. (2000a, 2000b), Commissioned Reviews of 250 Psychological Tests, deals with tests developed in the decade from 1990, covering a full range of psychological factors: cognition, ability, addiction, development, education, occupational psychology, health, well-being, social psychology, personality and individual differences.
  • - Goldman and Mitchell (2007 and earlier dates), Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures (APA publishers), covers a range of little-known measures. The latest volume (volume 9, 2007) covers work only up to 2005, so you will need to find more recent measures elsewhere. According to the publishers, ‘This directory fills an ongoing need for comprehensive information about noncommercial tests, enabling researchers to determine what types of noncommercial experimental test instruments are currently in use. The instruments are not evaluated, but the information given about each test should make it possible for researchers to make a preliminary judgment of its usefulness’. Tests are drawn from 36 leading journals in psychology, sociology and education.
  • - Robinson, Shaver, and Wrightsman (1991), Measures of Political Attitudes and Robinson, Shaver, and Wrightsman (1999), Measures of Political Attitudes, includes social psychological attitude measurement; these editions have been updated and supplemented by Boyle, Saklofske, and Matthews (2014) Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs.
• — HealthyPlace provides a useful collection of online tests related to mental health, free of charge (https://www.healthyplace. com/psychological-tests/). The tests are for screening and information, not for diagnostic use. A good range of clinical conditions is covered.
• - Hill and Hood (1999), Measures of Religiosity, deals with measures of religiosity. There has been no edition since 1999, but the measures are generally useful, though generally applicable only to people from Christian cultures. Some newer measures can be found in Boyle, Saklofske, and Matthews (2014) Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs.
• • You may not find everything in the field you are investigating from these sources, as there are a number of smaller-circulation, specialist journals, specialist books and booklets that are not covered. Unpublished conference presentations, privately circulated reports, university theses, material used by individuals or research groups are also not covered. You may find something suitable without resorting to these more arcane sources. However, if you need to be thorough, or scholarly, or if you are working in a very specialist field, you may have to use such sources, often involving the setting up of personal links. At the time of writing, there are a number of measures of Muslim religiosity (which can be found by searching the Internet) but few or no accessible measures of religiosity from other faith traditions.
• 4. To obtain a copy of the test, try the following:
  • • Locally available stocks.
  • • Personal contacts with authors of tests, or others working on the topic in which you are interested.
  • • Published accounts of tests in academic journals may contain full versions of the tests. These may normally be used, if the author’s permission is obtained.
  • • Some published reviews of tests carry copies of the tests and allow copying: for example Robinson, Shaver, and Wrightsman (1991), Hill and Hood (1999). HealthyPlace (https://www.healthyplace. com/psychological-tests/) offers online access to free-of-charge tests.
  • • Commercial test publishers. The Association of Test Publishers (https://www.testpublishers.org/our-members) offers links to a large number of publishers. Remember that test purchase can be expensive, and if online access to materials is not an option, delivery may take time. Ensure that a test fulfils your requirements before investing resources.