Can tests be trusted? Should we trust psychological tests? Tests for the detection of mental disorders.

Few things can be more exciting than exploring yourself, discovering new facets in yourself or learning more about your character - this is probably why various psychological tests are very popular. Many sites and books are filled with tests of various levels of complexity, where inquisitive users find all the diagnoses that explain for themselves and their loved ones. Just a few clicks and you can suddenly discover a sociopath in yourself or confirm your introversion. But is such self-diagnosis useful, is it worth trusting psychological tests, and do psychotherapists themselves use them?

How they wrote about me

Standard psychological tests consist of a series of primitive questions that you need to answer, and then calculate the scores and read the description for them.

The constant desire of a person to discover talents in himself, to learn something new and to reveal new facets is quite normal. But often people are surprised when, having passed the test, its result fully corresponds to their character and principles.

For example, a test that answers the question: “Do men like me?” is quite popular among girls. Every girl is worried about this question, despite the fact that she herself knows the answer to it and it is absolutely useless to apply psychological tests in this case. But still, after answering the questions from the test, you get an average result, where it says: “You are attractive to some men, some are crazy about you, and others are a little scared of your character.” In general, everything came together: every woman is pleased to realize that men like her, and regarding her character, many perceive this as an advantage. If they are afraid, it means self-sufficient, independent and strong. It is also curious to know the result with the lowest score: “You are of interest to the male half, but you have some complexes that can repel you.” This answer is also true, because everyone has some kind of complexes. We read the result with the highest scores: “You are able to please any man and conquer him,” and we see that this answer is also suitable.

How much can psychological tests be trusted?

The fact is that after passing such psychological tests, we get only a general picture of a person, which in general can be applied to anyone. Whether psychological tests are true is a complex question.

If we consider a situation where the same psychological test will be translated into several languages. Based on the fact that each nation has its own values and habits, of course, the result will be quite surprising.

Get to the bottom of it

However, psychological tests that are used by psychotherapists do exist. Of course, it takes a lot of resources and time to compile them.

When compiling a test, researchers first of all determine its target audience - the vocabulary and complexity of the questions should correspond to the group of respondents. The main difficulty is the maximum disclosure of each of the personality characteristics with the help of a small number of questions. Also, in addition to the “essential” questions, the so-called “lie scale” is often added to the test - questions that can help determine whether the subject answers honestly and carefully. That is, these are repetitions of one question with a slight reformulation.

You can also get honest answers with the help of a distorted description of the test - the respondent, counting on being tested for one thing, will answer more truthfully about the other.

After the questions are drafted, instructions are formed and time frames are determined. Then the test is tested for reliability, that is, two variants of the result from one person must be identical, and for validity - to what extent the test reflects the actual state of affairs.

All these features of psychological tests allow, as a result, to form a tool with which you can reliably assess certain properties of clients or patients. Not surprisingly, there are not so many really “serious” tests. After all, when creating them, most specialists forget or do not want to take into account many features of the psychological test.

Not all psychological tests are created equal

When choosing a test, for a specific purpose or for the sake of curiosity, it is worth considering how accurately and reliably it reflects your subject of assessment. In science, a psychological test is a standardized test, according to the answers received, one can judge both the psychophysiological and personal properties of the test person.

From this term, it is worth highlighting the keyword - standardized, which means that it concerns a test for which there is an understandable, standard and strictly implemented implementation scheme on the one hand, and criteria for evaluating the results of what was measured on the other. It is important that the psychological test has the main psychometric characteristics:

Validity.
adaptability.
Reliability.
Representativeness.

It is worth considering each of the above characteristics in more detail.

The validity of the test indicates to us how correctly the chosen technique measures the specific property for the analysis of which it is intended. This is one of the main criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of each psychological test, because the diagnosis of the “wrong” is absolutely meaningless.

There are several types of validity:

Informative.
Empirical.
Prognostic.
Conceptual.

The reliability of a psychological test indicates to us how protected it is from deliberate falsification of test answers by the subjects.

The validity of psychological tests is the most common issue, especially in cases where the results of the assessment of personality traits concern an external stakeholder, such as a manager.

Among the test reliability factors are:

The knowledge factor. Shows that the subject is aware of the personal characteristics hidden behind the judgment, whether such behavior exists in real life, and how such behavior is assessed by society;
Factor of social desirability. To obtain accurate information in this psychological test, there must be a lie scale, as well as possible answers of an identical emotional orientation;
individual practice factor. It's about about the motivation of the subject when passing the test. If during testing a certain behavior is required from a person, he may give not real, but desired behavioral responses, which significantly affects the results.

Adaptability - one of the properties of the test, demonstrating how its meaning and possible results correspond to the audience for which they are intended. That is, whether the national, cultural, and mental characteristics of the people who participate in a particular study are taken into account. This property is often ignored. Even though the adaptation of any foreign testing is the main condition for its implementation within another country, this factor is often neglected, which causes significant distortions in obtaining results.

The next property of any psychological test is reliability. It reflects the internal consistency of parts of the test, and the reproducibility of its results and a particular test subject when repeated. This means that the construction of psychological tests should be such that the questions do not contradict each other, and the results of a certain person do not change for some time.

Of course, a person can change, but, for example, if yesterday your IQ was 120, and a week later - 70, most likely the problem is not in your intelligence, but in the reliability of the effectiveness of the methodology used.

And finally, the representativeness or sample size of the standardization of the psychological test. This characteristic determines the possibility of applying the test in relation to a given population of respondents. For example, if the test is intended to be graded personal qualities leader, it is not suitable for assessing the student's personal characteristics.

Does the love for the yellow color speak about something and what is the “lie scale”. Few things can be more interesting than to explore oneself, which is probably why psychological tests are so popular. Hundreds of websites and books are filled with questionnaires of various levels of complexity

Few things are more interesting than exploring yourself, which is probably why psychological tests are so popular. Hundreds of websites and books are filled with questionnaires of various levels of complexity, from where inquisitive users draw all the explanatory diagnoses, both for themselves and for their neighbors - in a few clicks you can be convinced of your own introversion or suddenly discover a sociopath in yourself. But how useful is such a self-diagnosis, which tests can really be trusted, and do psychotherapists or psychiatrists use them themselves?How they wrote about me

How to evaluate the quality of a particular test? For most users, this is quite obvious - if the resulting result corresponds to reality, then there is at least something in the questionnaire. But are we able to objectively characterize ourselves? In 1948, the American psychologist Bertram Forer conducted an experiment - giving students a psychological test, according to the results of which he was supposedly going to analyze their personalities, he asked them to fill it out as much as possible. Then, under the guise of results, he distributed to everyone the same text taken from the horoscope and asked them to evaluate the reliability of the characteristics.

The average score given by the students was 4.26 points out of 5. Subsequently, the experiment was repeated hundreds of times, and the average result today is 4.2 points. The effect discovered during the experiment was called the Forer effect (and later also the Barnum effect - in honor of the American showman, known for his talent for psychological manipulation). And people who are familiar with this cognitive bias evaluate the results of psychological tests and their plausibility a little more critically.

Get to the bottom of it

Nevertheless, tests that are trusted by specialists in the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy do exist. True, their compilation requires quite a lot of resources and effort.

When developing a test, the research team first determines its target group - vocabulary and difficulty level must correspond to it. One of the main difficulties is to reveal each characteristic of an individual as fully as possible with the help of a minimum number of questions. The word "minimum" should not be taken literally - a rare serious test has less than a hundred points. As a rule, in addition to the “essentially” questions, the so-called “lie scale” is added to the questionnaire - questions that help determine whether the respondent was honest and attentive. These include repeating one question with some frequency, reformulating one question, trap questions, and more. A distorted description of the test also helps to get honest answers - hoping that it is tested for one thing, the respondent can write more honestly about the other.

After formulating questions for the test, instructions are drawn up and time frames are set. Finally, the test is tested for reliability (two answers from one person should ideally be identical) and validity, how much the test reflects the real state of affairs - this can be checked, for example, by comparing the results of the test being compiled and another that has already proven itself .

As a result of all this preparatory work, the output is a tool with which you can evaluate certain characteristics of clients or patients. Not surprisingly, there are not so many truly “serious” psychological tests. Let's talk about some of them.

I-Structural Ammon Test (ISTA)

According to the theory of the German psychiatrist Günter Ammon, from the interaction of various personality traits with each other and with the environment, the internal identity of a person grows. The fundamental features that make up the foundation of this construction are not realized, but underlie everything that we say, do and feel. They, among other things, can be constructive, destructive and deficient. Constructive aggression, for example - to besiege a boor screaming in the subway. And the destructive one is to yell at five subordinates after such an incident, without in any way besieging the boor himself. An individual with deficient aggression will not do either the first or the second - he will only go into his own thoughts about the cruelty of the world around. It is possible, according to Ammon, to define constructiveness, destructiveness and deficiency for six main personality traits - these include aggression, anxiety / fear, external delimitation of the “I” (that is, the ability to set one’s boundaries in communication), internal delimitation of the “I” (that is, there is an understanding of one's inner world), narcissism and sexuality. For each of them, the Ammon test has its own scale. The meaning of psychiatry according to Ammon is the replenishment of deficits and the elimination of distortions in the core of the personality. And for this, predictably, both must be found. That's what this test is for.

Standardized Multivariate Personality Research Method (MMPI)

The Ammon Structural Test contains 220 questions - and those who think that this is a lot have not heard anything about MMPI. 567 of his questions evaluate the personality of the respondent on 10 scales. From it you can learn, for example, about the tendency to sociopathy, depression, hypochondria, the conformity of the role of a man or woman, and much more. In addition to the ten main scales, there are also four rating scales, three of which can be used to determine the degree of thoroughness in completing the test, the truthfulness of the answers and the level of difficulty in answering, and the fourth helps to smooth out distortions in the results.

Today, MMPI can be safely called the most developed, studied and popular testing method - created in the 1930s by scientists at the University of Minnesota, it has been refined and corrected many times. Which, on the one hand, allows you to learn a lot of valuable information about the person being tested (for example, about yourself), and on the other hand, forces anyone who wants to seriously read the huge instructions and explanations of the results.

16-factor Cattell Personality Inventory (16-PF)

In the 1930s, two American psychologists came to the conclusion that any significant individual trait will sooner or later find a name in the language. This conclusion is called the "lexical hypothesis". The team of two psychologists did not stop there - they wrote out 4500 (that is, all that they found) adjectives describing a person from the two most respected English dictionaries. Their contemporary, Raymond Cattell, having evaluated the list, decided that all adjectives can be structured, referring to one or another more general characteristic of a person. And according to the results of the experiments, he broke them all into 12 factors. Then he added four more, which, in his opinion, should also have appeared. Despite the somewhat dubious methodology, it is this selection of 16 personality factors that formed the basis of the test, which today is considered one of the most trustworthy and is often used in personnel management, marketing, research and other fields.

Do picture tests work?

In addition to psychological tests that involve filling out questionnaires, there are others - in which the respondent does not need to think about himself and his qualities at all: the unconscious and projective thinking should do everything for them. The most famous of them are the Luscher and Rorschach tests.

Luscher color test

The Swiss psychotherapist Max Luscher believed that people's color perception is objective, that is, each of the colors means the same thing for everyone (violet, say, unrealism and charm, and yellow - eccentricity, proactivity and inspiration). But the preference for one or another color is subjective - each person considers this or that shade pleasant or unpleasant, based on his inner state. Therefore, by showing him colored cards and looking at his attitude towards colors, one can determine his personality traits and general condition.

Since 1948, when the test appeared, both criticism and admiration have been expressed in its address. Today, in a professional environment, they are rather wary of him. Partly because the hypothesis of objective color perception still does not have a serious scientific basis (although Luscher managed to confirm it empirically with the help of quantitative studies, no one can still guarantee that yellow associated with inspiration in 100% of the world's population). And partly because the test results almost do not match the classic tests, for example, MMPI.

Rorschach test

The meaning, concept and purpose of the Rorschach test is a little more than completely conveyed by the anecdote “Doctor, where did you get such pictures from?”. The Rorschach test is a projective technique in which the subject is asked to describe what, in his opinion, the inkblots offered by the psychotherapist are like, on the basis of which the latter describes certain traits of his personality. A small curiosity is that there is more than one version of the interpretation of the test results. Within one of the schools, the results are interpreted from the standpoint of classical psychoanalysis (that is, talking about the instinctive drives of the client and their expression), within the framework of the other, from the standpoint of the psychology of the “I”, and here psychologists talk about the style of thinking and regulation of the emotional life of the client. In a word, even if there detailed instructions by passing with formulas for calculating individual criteria in these spots, you can still see something of your own.

How they wrote about me

The average score given by the students was 4.26 points out of 5. Subsequently, the experiment was repeated hundreds of times, and the average result today is 4.2 points. The effect discovered during the experiment was called the Forer effect (and later also the Barnum effect - in honor of the American showman, known for his talent for psychological manipulation). And people who are familiar with it, evaluate the results of psychological tests and their plausibility a little more critically.

Get to the bottom of it

Nevertheless, tests that are trusted by specialists in the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy do exist. True, their compilation requires quite a lot of resources and effort.

Do picture tests work?

Luscher color test

Since 1948, when the test appeared, both criticism and admiration have been expressed in its address. Today, in a professional environment, they are rather wary of him. Partly because the hypothesis of objective color perception still has no serious scientific basis (although Luscher was able to confirm it empirically through quantitative studies, no one can still guarantee that yellow is associated with inspiration among 100% of the world's population) . And partly because the test results almost do not match the classic tests, for example, MMPI.

Rorschach test

The meaning, concept and purpose of the Rorschach test is a little more than completely conveyed by the anecdote “Doctor, where did you get such pictures from?”. The Rorschach test is a projective technique in which the subject is asked to describe what, in his opinion, the inkblots offered by the psychotherapist are like, on the basis of which the latter describes certain traits of his personality. A small curiosity is that there is more than one version of the interpretation of the test results. Within one of the schools, the results are interpreted from the standpoint of classical psychoanalysis (that is, talking about the instinctive drives of the client and their expression), within the framework of the other, from the standpoint of the psychology of the “I”, and here psychologists talk about the style of thinking and regulation of the emotional life of the client. In a word, even if there are detailed instructions for passing with formulas for calculating individual criteria, you can still see something of your own in these spots.

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Psychological tests are very popular and can entertain as well as a series with a twisted plot. But they were still created to determine and identify important qualities and possible deviations in the human psyche. They also help to deal with their internal contradictions. But at the same time, one should not forget that only a psychologist can correctly interpret their results. Therefore, if you, after passing the test, find out something disturbing about yourself, then you should not immediately panic. First contact a specialist.

website knows how important it is to explore your inner self inside and out, and provides an opportunity to learn something new and exciting about your personality through authoritative psychological tests.

Types of personality and character

Knowing what type of personality you have and what characteristics you have will help you understand yourself better. For example, how and with what people you build relationships, what type of activity suits you best and how to fulfill yourself correctly.

Value orientation tests will help you understand what values are your priority and what true desires are hidden behind your actions.

Tests related to family life

Tests for the detection of mental disorders

Psychology has long and reliably settled in women's magazines. Websites for women are full of psychological tests. But did you know that these tests are dangerous? And that their results are not reliable?

You might think that the results of tests that were invented by the editorial office without the participation of psychologists are unreliable. You may even say that you only use tests taken from trusted sources. Or world famous like MMPI.

I'm about to upset you. Even the original MMPI will not give you reliable results. Why it happens? To begin with, I will have to talk a little about how psychological tests are created.

How psychological tests are created

Meet Scientist. Right now, he will create a test especially for you and allow you to watch this process.

First, the Scientist chooses what he wants to measure. Let's say it will be the level of aggression. The Scientist does not have a separate theory that structures aggression or breaks it down into components. He wants to measure just aggression. Overall.

First, he makes a list of what he thinks characterize aggressive people. Well, what are they? What are they doing? They often shout, feel comfortable in an argument, believe that the best defense is an attack and, of course, loved to fight in childhood. "Oh yes!" - the Scientist recalls of Freud - "they must have had an overbearing father!"

From the list of statements, the Scientist makes a list of questions: "Do you yell easily? Are you comfortable in an argument? Did your father often force you to do chores?"

Then the Scientist needs to check how his questionnaire works. To do this, he needs a lot of people. He collects 1000 people and calls them a sample. A scientist makes unhappy people fill out his questionnaire. Now it is time for the Scientist to be miserable.

It processes the received data. He looks at what answers people gave to questions. Using mathematical and statistical methods, the Scientist identifies ineffective questions and discards them. He reinforces other aspects of the study with additional questions. He resorts to tricks to minimize various effects that distort the results. The scientist will probably conduct a few more verification studies.

The scientist then determines reliability. This is an important indicator that tells us that the test gives reliable data. To determine reliability, the Scientist gives the same version of the test to the same people, but with a pause between approaches. If for each person the test gives approximately the same result, it is reliable. The scientist adjusts the test to certain error requirements. To do this, you may have to go back a few steps.

Validity is another important indicator. It tells us that the test really measures what it should. So that it doesn’t turn out so that we wanted to measure aggression, but measured the level of openness or the length thumb right hand. It is also checked by complex methods and brought to a high level.

As a result of several years (!) of hard work in the mountains of questionnaires, people, tables and numbers, a test is born. It measures only one scale - the aggressiveness scale. The scientist is tired, the scientist retires with peace of mind. He enriched the world collection of psychological tests with one more.

Is it the world? As it turns out - no, only local.

Standardization and requirements for the use of tests

If you translate the test into another language, will it work just as well? Scientists have tried and unequivocally answer - no, it will not. The difference in language and culture is very significant. In order for it to work just like the original, you need to go through all the procedures that the Scientist did, adjusting the reliability and validity and endlessly changing the test and testing it on large samples. That is, actually create it anew.

Exactly. Just by translating the questions, you will turn the microscope into a pile of garbage.

Let's go further. Does the form on which questions are given affect the accuracy of the test? Scientists have tried, studied and accurately answer - yes, it does. Not only the form with questions and answers affects, but the situation in the room, the procedure for conducting the test. Is it one on one? Is the test-taker left alone with the questionnaire? Maybe the test is given to a group of respondents? Did the psychologist read the instructions? Did the psychologist answer the questions that the subjects had? And how did he answer?

All this is extremely important and absolutely accurate - it affects the accuracy of the test.

So, the test is a powerful tool, but to simply use it, you need to learn. And for a long time. In the West, you need to get a license to use each (!), test. After studying for a year to use the Cattell questionnaire, the psychologist will use it everywhere. And make fun of colleagues for the fact that they do not have the right to use it because they do not know how. Moreover, they will not get Cattell's questionnaire anywhere! Because it is sold only in a special store under license. And it's expensive.

A test is not just a two-sentence instruction and a list of questions with a key. This is a book! which describes everything. Why was the test created? What does he measure? On whom can it be used? When? What editions exist? What are the differences? What is the validity of the test (in percent)?

Instructions are not just a few sentences. Everything is written there. In the flesh to the pauses between words and the volume level of pronouncing some phrases. The instruction is read from the sheet, or memorized! IN otherwise the test data will be so unreliable that it's easier to throw it away.

Psychological tests on the Internet

You have read everything above and now you know a lot about psychological tests. Much more than the average person who has nothing to do with psychology. But you are probably confused. After all, you have seen a huge number of tests. Even on special psychological sites. And nowhere was there anything like it.

That's it. And now you understand what is the price of all these tests and their results.

Even an excellent valid and reliable test, translated into an electronic version, changes its performance. It is well known that there are special effects for tests that are conducted using a computer. For example, people tend to answer something vague or in the middle (for example, when choosing from three options yes-maybe-no) when conducting a computer option. Of course, this affects the performance of the test.

But the tests work!

You may exclaim. "And how did you understand it?" - I'll ask. Most likely, after receiving the test result and looking at its transcript in the application, you compared it with yourself. It says something that characterizes your personality. You read this and understand that it is about you. Well, almost about you, but quite accurately. Look you! They did not follow all these bureaucratic procedures, but the test works!

No, it does not work. It's just your assessment of yourself.

If every person could adequately assess himself (preferably in numbers), then psychological tests would not be needed.

Let me tell you about another funny thing. She is known as Barnum effect. And among the people - the effect of horoscopes.

Barnum effect

Taylor Barnum

Here is an excerpt from wikipedia:

Barnum effect- a general observation that people highly appreciate the accuracy of descriptions of their personality which they assume are personalized for them, but which are in fact vague and general enough to apply to many other people just as well .

You just answered a bunch of personal questions and calculated some points. In practice, they performed scientific manipulations according to instructions created (as one would like to think) by great scientists. Well, of course, the result obtained characterizes only you! Barnum effect in action.

This effect will work for anything. And this has been verified many times. This was first proven in Forer's experiment.

“Women named Masha are easy-going and easy to communicate with. But they can stand up for themselves when necessary. They like to trust people. "

Here, the binding to you goes by name and gender. The rest is a set of meaningless general characteristics that fit almost anyone. If you are a woman and your name is Masha, you will be more inclined to identify this description as appropriate for you.

So why are psychological tests dangerous?

Let's return to the thesis of the article. I argued that the tests are dangerous. Yes it is. Just like a scalpel in the hands of a specialist is a life-saving tool, so in the hands of an incompetent person it is just a sharp piece of iron that can seriously damage something vital.

Let's call a test, the results of which will not interest any normal psychodiagnostic, a bad test. This may mean that the test itself is good, but was not applied correctly. But for short - bad.

So, the result of a bad test can be perceived subjectively as negative. For example, it will show that the subject is a loser. If the subject tends to strongly believe this test, it can be psychologically harmful. By identifying oneself with a loser (the test showed!) A person can change his life for the worse. The psychologist knows that the test result does not say whether everything is good or bad, it just shows. Like a needle on a speedometer. When a psychologist is not around, a person perceives the test results as "good" or "bad". This has negative consequences.
The result of a bad test may not be perceived as reliable. This is, in general, correct. The person got a bad result and rejected it. But along with this result, he sends the results of well-conducted tests to the trash. And these tests themselves. Now he doesn't believe in psychological tests at all. And in psychology, by the way - too. The harm here is not obvious, but it will be an inhibitory factor that can prevent a person from turning to a psychologist when he needs it. The person will suffer, rejecting help.
Well, the last. Generally speaking, it refers not only to bad, but also to good tests in the hands of bad psychologists. A psychological test will always put a person in some specific framework and give him a description, an assessment. He is now not just a man, but a sanguine prone to verbal expression of aggression and a pronounced ability to empathize. On the one hand, this gives him some knowledge about himself (why does he need them, by the way?), but on the other hand, it makes him a prisoner of these definitions.

He can now put on the guise of a sanguine person and behave like a sanguine person (and not Petya Ivanov), he can use them as a shield: "I'm prone to verbal aggression, I can call names as much as I want, I'm like that!". Test findings may prevent a person from seeing changes in themselves. He may have already closed, but he still considers himself capable of empathy.

Well, what to do?

To begin with, I recommend asking the question: "Why should I take a psychological test?". What do you want to know? What result do you want to get and what will you do with it. The answer "well it is interesting" - does not count. Why is it interesting?

If you think that you still need to pass a psychological test, then contact professional psychodiagnostics. Now you know how serious the testing procedure is and you will be able to distinguish between a serious academic psychodiagnostic who can professionally apply the tools and analyze the result, from a non-professional who will give you a test that will not be more accurate than newspaper ones.

Although, of course, no one forbids using tests in magazines and the Internet just for fun. It is only important to understand that the results obtained by you in this way are far from accurate and objective. And for leisure activities, they are quite suitable.

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