ONLINE AND OFFLINE RESOURCES IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
PSY494P122 (2014-I)
Feb19th2014
COURSE
INFORMATION
2
COURSE INFORMATION
 Classes are 2 academic hours long (45’ each one).
 First hour lecture
 Second hour: exercises
 To access the final exam, it’s needed to attend at
least 80% of the seminars (i.e. 10 out of 13
seminars in total).
 Participate in classroom.
 Read the assigned papers. 3
COURSE INFORMATION
 EVALUATION:
 40% mandatory assignments
 35% final exam (multichoice answer quiz with 20
questions)
 25% participation during classes
4
COURSE GOALS
 Give you the necessary skills and knowledgeskills and knowledge to:
 efficiently search,
 critically select,
 efficiently organize scientific information.
 Thus, to promote information literacyinformation literacy
5
ONLINEONLINE
RESOURCESRESOURCES
6
ONLINE RESOURCES
 If you need basic information about a testtest, I
encourage you to use:
 Educational Testing Service (ETS)
 It’s a FREE database of more than 25,000 tests and other
measurement devices. Contains information about tests
from the early 1900s to the present, and is considered the
largest compilation of such materials in the world.
http://www.ets.org/test_link/find_tests/
7
ONLINE RESOURCES
 If you need bibliographybibliography about a test, I encourage
you to use:
 Tests and Measures in the Social Sciences
 This FREE database contains information on about 12,000
measures available in 128 compilation volumes.
http://libraries.uta.edu/helen/test&meas/testmainframe.htm
8
ONLINE RESOURCES
 The largest databasesdatabases on behavioral science and
mental health:
PsycINFOPsycINFO
This database contains over 3 million abstractsover 3 million abstracts of
scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and
dissertations.
PsycARTICLESPsycARTICLES
This database contains overover 150 thousand full text150 thousand full text
articlesarticles of peer-reviewed scholarly journals.
http://search.ebscohost.com/ 9
OFFLINEOFFLINE
RESOURCESRESOURCES
10
MMENTALENTAL MMEASUREMENTSEASUREMENTS YYEARBOOKEARBOOK
Provides factual information, critical
reviews, and comprehensive
bibliographic references on the
construction, use, and validity of allof all
tests published in English.tests published in English.
11
MUNI FSS Library, Location: D2-732, Years: 1985-2010
APAAPA HANDBOOKHANDBOOK
OFOF TESTINGTESTING ANDAND ASSESSMENTASSESSMENT ININ PSYCHOLOGYPSYCHOLOGY
 This 3-volume handbook is a comprehensive
presentation of the theory and application oftheory and application of
teststests in psychology and education.
 Probably the most comprehensivethe most comprehensive reviewsreviews on
the use of testing and assessment.
12
MUNI FSS Library (Barcode): 4240767206
INFORMATIONINFORMATION
LITERACY
13
INFORMATION LITERACY
14
American Library Aassociation - http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/standards/standards.pdf
INFORMATION LITERACY
National governments all around the globe
emphasize strong literacyliteracy as a
more-important-than-ever skill
in today’s knowledge-based societies
15
Bawden, D. (2008). Origins and concepts of digital literacy. In C. Lankshear & M. Knobel (Eds.), Digital literacies: Concepts,
policies, and practices (pp. 17–32). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
SCIENTIFICSCIENTIFIC
INFORMATION
16
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 Science:Science:
 A methodmethod or processor process of evolving or developing an
explanation of a phenomena or idea based on observation,
identification, description, and experimental investigation using
the best and most currently available information.
17
Collins, J W, O’Briend N P (2011). The Greenwoord dictionary of education (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 InformationInformation can be conceptualized as:
 Process (i.e. the communication act)
 Knowledge (i.e. increase in understanding)
 Thing (i.e. an object that imparts information)
18
Buckland, M. (1991). Information and information systems. New York: Praeger.
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 EXERCISE (SOURCE CREDIBILITY):EXERCISE (SOURCE CREDIBILITY):
 Perform a simple search for eating disorders on Google.
 How many of the results do you consider as “scientific
information”?
19
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
20
Latto, J., & Latto, R. (2009). Study skills for psychology students. New York, NY: Open University Press.
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 The most relevant sources of information are:
 Scientific books
 Articles in professional journals (peer-reviewed)
 Standard reference materials (e.g. encyclopedias)
 Research reports, dissertations and monographs
 Presentations at conferences, symposia and workshops
21
Fouché, C. B., & Delport, C. S. L. (2005). In-depth review of literature. In A. S. de Vos, H. Strydom, C. B. Fouché, & C. S. L. Delport (Eds.),
Research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions (3rd ed., pp. 123–131). Pretoria: Van Schaik
Publishers.
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 Evaluating source credibility (skepticism):
1. The reporting scientists and their respective institutions.
 Prior research
 Reputation within the field
 Prominence of the institution
2. The publication or publisher of the reports.
 Peer-reviewed publication (extensive review process)
22
Nelson, D. E. (2011). Understanding and reporting the science. In C. F. Parvanta, D. E. Nelson, S. A. Parvanta, & R. N. Harner (Eds.),
Essentials of public health communication (pp. 55–73). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 As can be deduced from the previous exercise:
 Scientific information is everywhere (online/offline), but the
source must be evaluated.
 Scientific information is indexed in some way (e.g. library
catalogues: keywords or internet metadata: tags)
 Some information is “invisible” for us (not indexed)
23
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 Also deduced from the previous exercise:
 Pre-requisites to retrieve scientific information:
 It’s availableavailable in some way (library, bookstore, etc.)
 It’s indexedindexed in some way ((library’s catalogue, internet, etc.)
24
SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
 Also deduced from the previous exercise:
 There are barriersbarriers to access scientific information:
 Language
 Cost
 Our own skills and knowledge
25
READINGS FOR THE NEXT CLASS:
(1) Finding a Research Problem (Joyner, Rouse, &
Glatthorn, 2013)
(2) Hypothesis development [Part 1] (McBride, 2013)
(3) Health and biomedical information, Indexing, Research
directions (Hersh, 2009)* [optional]
26
ASSIGNMENT:
Formulate a research question.