Subject Guide for Tests and Measurements
- Introduction
- Contact Information
- Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- Databases and Indexes and more...
- Using the PAC to Find Testing Information
- Sources with Complete Instruments
- Test Publishers
- Other Helpful Web Sites
Introduction
Psychological and educational testing and measuring instruments are an important part of research and clinical practice in the social sciences. There are thousands of testing and measuring instruments available today. The two different kinds of instruments are: (1) commercially produced and must be purchased through a publisher (these can be quite expensive), and (2) "unpublished," which actually are often published in the journal literature ("unpublished" refers to the fact that they aren't available from a publisher). This document will discuss various issues related to locating and finding psychological and educational testing and measuring instruments, with specific reference to the print and online resources found in the SDSU Library. For an overview of psychological assessment, go to the BF 176 section of the book stacks on the third floor of the Library. Other pertinent sections related to psychological and educational assessment include BF 431, LB 1131, LB 2826, and LB 3000 (fourth floor), and RC 467 (fifth floor).
Note: The Library does not collect actual testing and measuring instruments
produced by commercial publishers. A small collection of these is housed in
the SDSU Student Testing, Assessment, and Research Office, but many are outdated and
can only be examined (for research purposes or class assignments) with written
permission from a faculty member. Similar collections at other libraries can be
found in the Directory of Test Collections (LB3051 .D564 2001 REF). Compilations (books containing complete
instruments) are discussed below.
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Contact Information
Bruce Harley can be contacted at bharley@rohan.sdsu.eduLinda Salem can be contacted at lsalem@mail.sdsu.edu
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Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological Assessment
BF176 .C654 2004 REF
Encyclopedia of Educational Research
LB15 .E48 1992 REF
Encyclopedia of Social Measurement
H62 .E53 2005 REF
Dictionary of Psychological Testing, Assessment and Treatment.
BF 176 S78 1995 REF
A Dictionary of Statistics for Psychologists.
BF 39 E83 1999 REF
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Databases and Indexes and more...
Use these databases and indexes to locate reviews, descriptions, evaluations, and locations of thousands of instruments.All SDSU tests and measurements databases can be found at http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/databases/testmeas.shtml
Buros' Mental Measurements Yearbook has been the standard source for information about and reviews of psychological and educational instruments for many years. For an index to all volumes (or editions), use Tests in Print (LB3051 .T47 REF) or search the Web-based index. The online database equivalent of Mental Measurements Yearbook contains descriptive information and critical reviews of new and revised instruments published over the past thirty years. The database covers more than 2000 commercially-available instruments in categories such as personality, developmental, behavioral assessment, neuropsychological, achievement, intelligence and aptitude, educational, speech and hearing, and sensory motor.
The SDSU Test Finder indexes complete instruments contained in reference books at the Reference Desk (see those with the green dots) and other locations in the SDSU Library. Also points to complete measures found in electronic and print journals owned by SDSU, as well as instruments that are available on the web.
SDSU Test Finder for Journal Articles.
Indexes complete tests and instruments found in scholarly journal articles
PsycINFO can be used to locate references to instruments. Use the CC Classification for Tests & Testing (2220) or use the "TM Tests and Measures" Field or consult the PsycInfo Thesaurus for appropriate descriptors. See APA's website for more help finding instruments in PsycINFO.
Education Full-Text contains, in addition to instruments, scholarly journal articles, trade publications, magazines and yearbooks.
Test Locator: index to more than 20,000 instruments. Some are available in the Tests in Microfiche collection (C-731), some in journal articles or ERIC documents, and some only from the publisher.
Test Review Locator: index to reviews of over 2000 psychological and educational instruments found in Buros' Mental Measurements Yearbooks.
And more...
Useful print tools are the eight volume Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures (BF431 .G625 REF) and the ten volume Test Critiques (BF176 .T419 REF).
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Searching the PAC
When searching the SDSU Library PAC for testing information, use the following subject headings: Psychological Tests, Psychometrics, Psychological Testing, Behavioral Assessment, Neuropsychological Tests, Personality Tests, Testing, Employment Tests, and Psychiatric Rating Scales. In addition, sometimes keyword searches (with the name of the test specified) will reveal helpful resources.Top of page
Sources with Complete Instruments
Most sources in the SDSU Library that contain complete instruments are located at the Reference Desk (see the SDSU Test Finder for indexed titles).Another good test index for most of these book-length compilations can be found
in Test
and Measures in the Social Sciences.
This free database indexes about 10,000 complete instruments in books, in Tests
in Microfiche, and on the web.
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Test Publishers
Western Psychological Services
Other publishers of psychological instruments (Association of Test Publishers)
Also be aware that the best way to acquire many non-commercial instruments is to contact the author directly via email.
Other Helpful Web Sites
The American Psychological Association has a helpful summary of related information. Included at this website is an informative discussion of the differences between published and unpublished instruments. Most published instruments are fairly expensive and are only available through a test publisher. Unpublished instruments are generally free of charge, although sometimes permission is needed before actually administering one. Unpublished instruments can be found in journal articles, on microfiche, in books, or directly from the author. Most of the sources listed in this document are books in the SDSU Library that contain the complete text of various psychological and educational instruments.The University of British Columbia Library has a useful site on instruments.
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