Introduction

Crucial to the study of psychology is the strict adherence to scientific

principles. Psychology may therefore be defined as the scientific study of

human and animal behaviour and mental processes with the aim of

understanding, organizing, directing, predicting, and modifying behaviour.

Gary (2010) defined psychology as the science of mind and behaviour. The

scientific component involves the strict adherence to the basic scientific

principles of determinism, empiricism, objectivity, and operational definition

of terms. Behaviour can be overt or covert, overt behaviours are evident and

can be studied through direct observation, while the covert behaviours are

clandestine and can be studied through the use and application of

psychological testing methods. Psychology is characterised by both research

and application, with the immediate goal of understanding humanity

through the discovery of general principles and exploration of specific cases,

it is therefore imperative to employ the use of objective and standardised

measure of behaviour Fernald (2008).

The branch of psychology concerned with the theory and technique of

psychological and educational measurement is called psychometrics; this

includes the measurement of intelligence, attitudes, abilities, and traits.

Psychometrics primarily entails the task of constructing and validating

measurement instruments such as psychological tests and inventories.

Apart from direct observation of the behaviour of interest, unobserved

constructs (latent variables) are measured through empirically designed

instruments called psychological tests. Anastasi and Urbina (1997) defined

psychological tests as an objective and standardised measure of a sample of

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behaviour. Crucial to this definition are the concepts of validity and

reliability. A test is said to be valid when it measures what it purports to

measure, on the other hand a test is described as reliable when it yields the

same or similar results when measured at different times by the same or

different observers.

Importance of Psychological Tests

Psychological tests are essential to the study and practice of

psychology, they represent measures of individual differences on criterion

variables and aid in decision making in applied psychology and basic

research. Psychological tests are used for recruitment, selection, placement,

and classification in commerce, industries, and the military. They aid

decisions on transfer, promotion, demotion, or termination of employment,

and are also used for selecting employees for training and other personnel

development programmes.

Psychological tests are employed to measure individual differences as

it relates to job aptitude and abilities, and the results are used as guides to

personnel management decisions. In clinical settings, psychological tests are

used for diagnosis of various forms of psychological impairment and to

monitor the effect of treatments and interventions. They are also used for

the examination of the mental health of individuals. Within the educational

locale, academic progress is evaluated using psychological tests. These tests

help to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programmes by checking

whether or not the academic progress of students improved as a

consequence of the educational instruction. Tests are also used for

placement of students into career options, for diagnosis of areas of academic

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difficulty and for vocational counselling of students. Furthermore,

psychological tests are used as a tool to solve a wide spectrum of practical

problems in basic research.

Development of Psychological Tests

Psychological tests are scientifically constructed following careful and

detailed procedures based on sound theoretical approach. The first step in

psychological tests development is the identification and definition of the

behaviour to be measured. The test developer must determine the specific

construct or trait of interest and operationally define it along the

measurement continuum. This gives a clear indication of the aspect of

behaviour to be measured and is mostly used to form the name of the test.

One of the greatest challenges of test developers is the creation of

effective test items. The writing and selection of test items is the next step

after the definition of the behaviour or construct of interest According to

Haladyna, Downing, and Rodriguez (2002), creating effective test items may

be more of an art than science, although there is a sol id scientific basis for

many of the well established principles of item writing. In determining the

kinds of items that will be good enough to discriminate among testees on the

desired behaviour, there is a need for item generation; this can be achieved

through the review of literature and consultation with subject matter

experts. The synthesis of all the information gathered assists in getting a

concise idea for item generation. There may be need to carry out initial job

analysis before test item generation for tests being developed for selection

and placement purposes (Ehigie, 1999). A large pool of items is generated

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from this approach which will be subsequently screened to arrive at desired

number of items.

Training of item writers is an important val idity issue associated with

test development (Downing & Haladyna, 1997). Without proper training

most novice item writers tend to create poor quality, flawed, low cognitive

level test items that do not discriminate in any way. Being a subject matter

expert cannot be substituted for effective item writing expertise, effective

item writing skills must be learned and practiced. Haladyna (2004) posited

that for new item writers, it often helpful and important to provide specific

instruction using an item writer's guide, paired with hands-on training

workshop. According to Jozefowicz, Koeppen , Case, Galbraith , Swanson,

and Glew (2002), the instruction-practice-feedback-reinforcement loop is

important for the effective development and maintenance of solid item

writing skills. Therefore, the feedback from expert and peers is required in

the training of new item writers.

On the generation of test items, it is pertinent to conduct test item

selection. The large pool of items generated is usually indistinct, and so a

pilot study is required to help revise these items. The data collected from the

pilot study or pretesting are scored and analysed. Item or factorial analysis

is made to enhance the identification of the items that are not suitable for

the test According to Anastasi (1968), the pool of items initial ly generated

can be reduced or shortened through factor analysis. Factor analysis assists

the test developer to identify the items that are good enough to be retained

in the final format. The substandard items are either reworded or completely

rejected. The pretesting process continues until satisfactory result is

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achieved. The selection of items could be made by the test developer as well

as in the course of establishing reliability and validity of the test. The

process of test construction is completed when the final format of the test is

prepared. At this stage all substandard items have been revised and the test

is taken through the standardization process to establish its psychometric

properties in terms of reliability, validity and the establishment of test

norms. The nature of the test whether speed, power, or personality test

determines the scoring pattern.

Since the inception of test development, the test developer decides the

nature of the item format for proposed examination as in the case of

achievement tests. There is a need for an objectively scorable item format for

most large scale and cognitive achievement testing. According to Haladyna

(2004), the multiple choice format (and its variants), with some ninety years

of effective use and an extensive research basis, is the item format of choice

for most testing programs. The principles of writing effective, objectively

scored multiple-choice items are well established and many of these

principles have a solid basis in the research literature (Downing, 2002b,

2004; Haladyna, 2004; Haladyna and Downing, 1989a, b, Haladyna,

Downing, Rodriguez, 2002). There is strong research evidence

demonstrating the high positive correlation between constructed response

and selected response item scores for measuring knowledge and many

cognitive skills Rodriguez (2003). This makes the multiple choice item

format acceptable for achievement tests. Downing (2002a) argued that the

multiple choice item is the workhouse of the testing enterprise. It is an

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extremely versatile test item form; and can be used to test all levels of the

cognitive taxonomy including very high level cognitive processes.

The writing of test manual is the final step in the development of

psychological tests. Cronbach (1971) posited that the manual is the

principal source of information about the quality of a published and

standardised test. The manual provides detailed information on the test

which includes administrative and scoring procedure, test objective,

psychometric properties, and the norms of the test. Any standardized test

that is published for public use must have the manual which must be

written explicitly by the test developer. The standards for test development

emphasized the documentation of the methods used to establish test

specifications and blueprints, their rationale and the evidence the test

developers present to support the argument that the particular test

specification fairly represents the content domain of interest (AERA, APA,

NCME, 1999).

Typology of Psychological Tests

Several categories of psychological tests been developed to measure

different types of behaviours, some of the common psychological tests are

personality tests, achievement tests, intelligence tests etc.

i Personality Inventories

Personality inventories may be described as questionnaires on which

individuals report reactions or feelings in certain situations. The basic tenet

of this method of personality assessment is individuals' self-observation and

self-report. Personality inventories are not often called tests as there are no

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right or wrong answers. The term, inventory, is considered more adequate as

they are paper-and-pencil questionnaires. A personality inventory may be

designed to measure a single dimension of personality such as self-esteem,

or several personality attributes simultaneously (Ehigie, 1999). Popular

personality inventories include Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

(MMPI), Califo rnia Psychological Inventory (CPI), sixteen Personality

Questionnaire (1 6PF) etc. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

(MMPI), which is well described in the classic volumes by Dahlstorm, Welsh,

and Dahlstorm (1972, 1975). The MMPI was developed by means of criterion

keying approach. The criterion groups for the development of most of the

scales of the MMPI consisted of patients in the neuropsychiatric sections of

Minnesota hospitals in the United States. All of these patients were

classified in one of the following eight diagnostic categories of

hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviate, paranoia,

Psychasthenia, schizophrenia, and hypomania. Items which distinguished

between members of these psychodiagnostic groups and normal control

groups were included in the questionnaire (Huysamen, 1982).

The MMPI represents an important milestone in the development of

objective personality measurement and served as the basis for the

development of other questionnaires such as the California Psychological

Inventory (CPI) developed and revised by Harrison Gough (1987). What the

MMPI means for the assessment of pathological behaviour, the CPI is said to

do for normal behaviour. The MMPI was originally designed to identify

people with serious personality disorders but it has presently been widely

used in studying normal population. It is therefore used in determining the

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appropriate psychiatric label for people whose behaviours are not perfectly

disordered. While drawing about half of its items from the MMPI, the CPI

was developed specifically for use with normal populations from 13 up. On

the whole however, the CPI is one of the best personality inventories

currently available. The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (1 6PF) is

a multiple-choice personality questionnaire which was developed by Cattell

(1946). In developing the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, Cattel

used factor-analytic methods to obtain to obtain collections of homogeneous

items. First he obtained a large collection of items by listing the names of all

the personality traits which could be found in dictionaries, or in the

psychological and psychiatric literature. The item scores were correlated and

subjected to factor analysis, the result was the Sixteen Personality Factor

Questionnaire (16PF).

ii Achievement Tests

Achievement tests are designed to assess what a person has learned

after a specific course of instruction. They try to measure performance of an

individual after an exposure to a prescribed content. Standardised

achievement tests were designed to evaluate a student's knowledge after a

standard course of training. They represent terminal evaluation of

performance and thus reveal how much a student has learnt. Course

contents and syllabuses serve as a standardization measure for achievement

tests. Downing (2002a) advocated that the multiple choice format is

appropriate in achievement testing; he posited that the multiple test format

can be used to test all levels of the cognitive taxonomy.

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iii Intelligence Tests

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010), intelligence tests are

series of tasks designed to measure the capacity to make abstractions, to

learn, and to deal with novel situations. The most widely used intelligence

tests include the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler scales.

The Stanford-Binet is the American adaptation of the original French Binet-

Simon intelligence test; it was first introduced in 1916 by Lewis Terman, a

psychologist at Stanford University. The individually ad ministered test,

revised in 1937, 1960, and 1972, evaluates persons two years of age and

older and is designed for use primarily with children. It consists of an age-

graded series of problems whose solution involves arithmetical, memory,

and vocabulary skills. Intelligence tests have provoked a great deal of

controversy about what kinds of mental abilities constitute intelligence and

whether the IQ adequately represents these abilities, with debate focusing

on cultural bias in test construction and standardization procedures. Critics

have charged that intelligence tests favour groups from more affluent

backgrounds and discriminate against less privileged racial, ethnic, or social

groups. Consequently, psychologists have attempted to develop culture-free

tests that would more accurately reflect an individual’s native ability.

These tests are no doubt useful and to very large extent objective

measures of proposed constructs but the generalisability are questionable.

Some of the items of these tests are designed for American and western

societies. Ethnic and cultural differences were not considered and this

makes generalizability somewhat difficult. Some items on the tests may not

make sense to Nigerians or other non western citizens because of cultural

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differences, thereby making it difficult to respond to such items and

ultimately influencing the test results. Consequent upon cultural

implication of the tests, certain societies have adapted some of these

western tests to suit their culture. An example is the PHSF (Personal, Home,

Social, and Formal relations) Questionnaire published in 1970 by HSRC was

designed to measure the adjustment of white high school pupils, university

students, and adults. This questionnaire was adapted and normed for high

school pupils between the ages of 14 and 19 inclusive (Huysamen, 1982).

Challenges of Developing Psychological Tests in Nigeria

Psychologists in Nigeria have started constructing tests to assess

personality in various settings. This became necessary to ensure cultural

relevance of personality tests in Nigeria (Ekore, 2001). Some procedures

used by the western societies are being used to develop local tests in Nigeria.

The strong point of these tests is the cultural consideration for test content

and context. The deficiency in the foreign tests is necessitating psychologists

in Nigeria to delve into test construction in order to meet local demand.

However there exists still a need for local tests in Nigeria (Ekore, 2001). The

bulk of the tests available to psychologists are foreign and not suitable for

African cultural background. The scarcity of local tests in Nigeria may be as

a result of the challenges psychologists in Nigeria face in the process of test

construction. Some of the challenges may include:

a. Shortage of manpower in the area of psychometrics in Nigeria

Most psychological tests in Nigeria were developed by non psychometricians

due to the scarcity of psychometricians in the country. Downing and

Haladyna (1997) argued that knowing the principles of effective item writing

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is no guarantee of an item writer's ability to actually produce effective test

questions. Although item writers must be experts in their own disciplines,

there is no reason to believe that their subject matter expertise generalizes

to effective item writing. This explains the need for psychologists to be

trained as psychometricians in order to ensure effective test construction. It

is interesting to know that the study of psychometrics at the postgraduate

level in Nigerian universities is almost nonexistent.

b. Financial and time constraints

Test development involves at lot of financial resources which are not readily

available to most psychologists in Nigeria. As a result of financial constraint

in test development, many of the psychological tests found in Nigeria are

adapted from western countries. Time is a major constraint to test

development in Nigeria. The basic principles and steps of test construction

should be strictly adhered to in order to develop effective tests. These steps

are time consuming and require a lot of efforts and commitment. This

explains some of the challenges psychologists in Nigeria encounter in the

process of test construction.

c. Work overload

Characteristic of the job of an average psychologist in the academic milieu is

work overload. Lecturers often teach more courses than necessary and are

also saddled with administrative responsibilities. It is also important that

these lecturers write and publish papers and articles to remain relevant in

the profession. There are multiple deadlines to be met as a lecturer in the

discharge of duties and the ability to multitask is crucial in this setting. The

challenge of the psychologists here will be to meet deadlines and there is

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hardly room for extra engagements. Test development is not given any

consideration as the psychologists already have all of their work hours

occupied.

d. Lack of mentoring and training programs for new test developers

in Nigeria

As a result of scarcity of psychometricians, young psychologists lack

mentors to coach them in the art and science of test construction. According

to Haladyna (2004) for new item writers is often helpful and important to

provide specific instruction using an item writer’s guide, paired with hands

on training workshop. Effective item writing skills must be learned and

practiced.

e. Lack of attraction to psychometrics as a field in psychology

Lack of attraction to psychometrics as a field in psychology is another

reason for the challenges psychologists in Nigeria encounter in the

development of local tests. As a result of psychometrics' involvement in the

theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement include

the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits,

many young psychologists avoid it in an attempt to escape figures. A good

number of students in Nigeria have phobia for mathematics and therefore

avoid it every way possible.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Psychological tests serve a whole lot of purposes in both applied and

research settings. Therefore, efforts should be made to ensure the

construction of local tests in Nigeria Universities in Nigeria should offer

psychometrics as an area of specialization in psychology, as this wil l

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promote psychometrics and increase the number of psychometricians with

in the country.

Psychometricians in Nigeria should rise to this challenge and

encourage young psychologists in the field through mentoring and coaching.

Research clusters should be formed and financed towards the

development of psychological tests.

The government, educational institutions, and professional bodies

should give grants to psychologists in the pursuit of test construction;

sabbatical leave should also be given to psychologists for the purpose of test

development.

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