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Finding Tests, Measures, and Appraisals: What Would You Like to Find?

Assessments, Tests, and Measures

Educational, psychological and psychosocial instruments fall into 2 main categories:

  • Published tests and measures which must be purchased through a commercial publisher.  To purchase a test, you may be required to demonstrate your qualifications to administer and interpret the test.  Published test can be expensive.
  • Unpublished tests, on the other hand, are not available from a commercial publisher. They are usually found referenced in journal articles or dissertations or in books published with small collections of mesures on the same topic. 

 

What would you like to find?

Discover if a Test or Measure Exisits on a Topic

The first step is looking to see if a measure exists on a given topic. Name and descriptions of measures can be found in many sources.

Locate Unpublished Measures in:

  1. Books and Reference Books
  2. Research Databases
  3. Dissertations
  4. Web Directories

Find a Review with Reliability and Validity data about a Measure

To find test reviews for commercially available tests (ones that cost a fee to purchase), use Mental Measurements Yearbook.

Here you will find reviews, reliability, and validity data, and purchase information about Commercially Published psychological Instruments. MMY is available in Print (as a book series dating back to 1938).  Besse Library no longer subscribes to the MMY Database.

Obtain a Copy of an Unpublished Test

Now that you have discovered that a Measure exists on your topic and checked its Reliability and Validity data; It's time to see if we can obtain a copy of the Psychological Test.