Psychological testing in the undergraduate curriculum.

Abstract

A survey of the quantitative offerings and requirements of all 51 Canadian undergraduate psychology programs showed that courses in psychological testing are offered less often and are required much less often than those in statistics and methods. This may reflect a lack of attention to testing in graduate school training and a preference for "experimental" over "correlational" psychology. I argue that testing courses should be required because measurement is a fundamental topic, that certain important debates rest on test data, and that tests are widely used in applied settings. In closing, I present some suggestions for course content.

The prevalence of measurement in undergraduate psychology curricula across the United States.

“…Enrollment in a course devoted solely to measurement could only enhance students' measurement literacies-knowledge related to quantifying observations, general statistics, reliability/validity, and measurement error (Lambert, 1991). Moreover, as previously noted by McKelvie (2000) but worth repeating, many other benefits would likely arise from increased measurement exposure, such as better understandings for (a) the construction and selection of dependent measures; (b) more practical research methods because correlational designs are often more feasible than experiments; (c) meta-analyses that are regularly used in test validation studies; (d) the scales of measurement; and (e) the ethical/social issues associated with the growing use of high-stakes testing.…”

Attracting Students to the Field of Measurement

“…Unfortunately, this course in not offered consistently and when we inquire about its offering, we learn that although the course is valued, there are not resources to support it. We, like many others in the past (e.g., McKelvie, 2000;Sireci, 2000), argue that a measurement course is as important or even more important than other courses, especially for those pursuing an undergraduate degree in education or psychology. In the end, however, our arguments do not outweigh other factors (e.g., lack of resources) working against us.…”

Teaching Psychology Research Methodology Across the Curriculum to Promote Undergraduate Publication: An Eight-Course Structure and Two Helpful Practices

“…How can methodology courses promote undergraduate involvement in publishable research? In our undergraduate liberal arts institution in Québec, where the Bachelor's degree normally takes 3 years following 2 years of college, we require more, rather than less: our psychology program has evolved since the 1960s to require a solid backbone of mandatory methods-related courses that is considerably more extensive than in most universities (McKelvie, 2000 ). Psychology majors take two consecutive introductory statistics courses in the first academic year, reaching the level of two-way ANOVA.…”

“…It uses the same text, and continues active participation in project work. An unusual requirement (McKelvie, 2000 ) is a course in Psychometrics and Psychological Testing, reflecting our belief in the importance of measurement. In the third year, students with a program average of 80% or better, and a combined average of 75% in the advanced research methods course plus the second statistics course, may enter the honors program.…”