Norms provide standards for interpreting test scores by incorporating a statistical summary of scores from a large, representative sample. There are different types of norms including age norms, grade norms, within-group norms, sub-group norms, local norms, and convenience norms. Norms are typically expressed as percentile ranks or standardized scores to allow comparison of an individual's performance to the average performance of others.
Norms provide standards for interpreting test scores by incorporating a statistical summary of scores from a large, representative sample. There are different types of norms including age norms, grade norms, within-group norms, sub-group norms, local norms, and convenience norms. Norms are typically expressed as percentile ranks or standardized scores to allow comparison of an individual's performance to the average performance of others.
Norms provide standards for interpreting test scores by incorporating a statistical summary of scores from a large, representative sample. There are different types of norms including age norms, grade norms, within-group norms, sub-group norms, local norms, and convenience norms. Norms are typically expressed as percentile ranks or standardized scores to allow comparison of an individual's performance to the average performance of others.
Norms provide standards for interpreting test scores by incorporating a statistical summary of scores from a large, representative sample. There are different types of norms including age norms, grade norms, within-group norms, sub-group norms, local norms, and convenience norms. Norms are typically expressed as percentile ranks or standardized scores to allow comparison of an individual's performance to the average performance of others.
Department of Psychology Psychological Tests and Norms A psychological test must possess norms or standards. An examinee’s test score is usually interpreted by comparing it with the scores obtained by others on the same test. For this purpose, test developers typically provide norms which is a summary of test results for a large and representative group of subjects (Petersen, Kolen, & Hoover, 1989). The norm group is referred to as the standardization sample. When a person's test score is interpreted by comparing that score to the scores of several other people, this is referred to as a norm-based interpretation. The score to which each individual is compared are referred to as norms which provide standards for interpreting test scores.
Norms not only establish an average performance but also serve to indicate the frequency with which different high and low scores are obtained. Thus, norms allow the tester to determine the degree to which a score deviates from expectations. Such information can be very important in predicting the non-test behavior of the examinee. There are many different kinds of norms, but they share one characteristic: Each incorporates a statistical summary of a large body of scores.
Types of Norms:
Norms
Age Norms Grade Norms Within-Group Norms Sub-Group Convenience
Local Norms Norms Norms
Age Norms: An age norm is a developmental norm which depicts the level of development for each separate age group in the normative sample. The purpose of age norms is to facilitate same-aged comparisons. With age norms, the performance of an examinee is interpreted in relation to standardization subjects of the same age. According to APA age norm is the standard score or range of scores that represent the average achievement level of people of a particular chronological age. For example, when the performance of a 6 years old child is compared with the particular reference group of his own age range then the age norm is in play.
Grade Norms: Grade norms are very similar to age norms except that the base line of the graph is the grade level rather than age. Grade norm is the standard score or range of scores that represent the average achievement level of students of a particular grade. These norms are most popular when reporting the achievement levels of school children. For Example If we say, that a child has scored at the seventh grade in reading and the fifth grade in arithmetic, it means that her or his performance on the reading test matches the average performance of the seventh-graders in the standardization sample and that, on the arithmetic test, her or his performance equals that of fifth-graders Within-Group Norms
Within groups, norms can be described as a test scoring method. It is the most common normative strategy for testing. This type of scoring is very common in psychological and intelligence measures. A test is given to a group of individuals and their results are used to create a normal distribution. This distribution of scores is used as a normative group in which to compare and score people who take the test.
An example of a normal distribution is a standard IQ score in which 100 is the average
score. The initial test taking sample should be a standardization sample. This means that the sample must represent the population that will be taking the test. The standardization sample must be large and representative.
Sub-Group Norms
When large samples are gathered to represent broadly defined populations, norms can be reported in the aggregate or can be separated into sub-group norms. Provided that they are of sufficient size—and fairly representative of their categories—subgroups can be formed in terms of age, sex, occupation, ethnicity, educational level, or any other variable that may have a significant impact on test scores or yield comparisons of interest. Subgroup norms may also be collected after a test has been standardized and published to supplement and expand the applicability of the test.
For instance, before the MMPI was revised to create the MMPI-2 and a separate form for adolescents (the MMPI-A), users of the original test—which had been normed exclusively on adults—developed special subgroup norms for adolescents at various age levels
Local Norms
There are some situations in which test users may wish to evaluate scores on the basis of reference groups drawn from a specific geographic or institutional setting. In such cases, test users may choose to develop a set of local norms, for members of a more narrowly defined population such as the employees of a particular company or the students of a certain university. Local norms can be used for evaluating the performance of students or employees within a given setting, or for making decisions about school or job applicants in relation to the standards of a certain place or institution.
Local norms are simply norms developed from a locally obtained group of individuals. Thus, an agency that has been using Rotter’s Incomplete Sentence Black (RISB) for some time could systematically assemble the RISB scores of all of its employees and produce norms that address the need of that particular agency they i.e. hiring, firing, promotions and demotions etc. Convenience Norms
Occasionally, for reasons of expediency or financial constraints, test developers use norms based on a group of people who simply happen to be available at the time the test is being constructed. These convenience norms are of limited use because they are not representative of any defined population; they are often composed of individuals who are easily accessible to the test developers, such as the students in a college class or the residents of a particular retirement home. In cases like these, the nature of the normative sample should be made clear to potential users of the test.
Methods Used for Expressing Norms
Percentile Rank:
The most common form of norms is percentile ranks. It is the most direct and ubiquitous method used to convey norm-referenced test results. It represents the simplest method of presenting test data for comparative purpose. Percentile rank represents the percentage of the norm group that earned a raw score less than or equal to the score of that particular individual. It is possible to compare one's score to several different norm groups.
Standard Scores
Many psychologists and educators appreciate the psychometric properties of standard
scores but regard the decimal fractions and positive/negative signs as unnecessary distractions. In response to these concerns, test specialists have devised a number of variations on standard scores that are collectively referred to as standardized scores.
From a conceptual standpoint, standardized scores are identical to standard scores. Both kinds of scores contain exactly the same information. The shape of the distribution of scores is not affected, and a plot of the relationship between standard and standardized scores is always a straight line. However, standardized scores are always expressed as positive whole numbers (no decimal fractions or negative signs), so many test users prefer to depict test results in this form.
