In my article "The Need for Psychology Understanding,” I discussed how fiction writers need at least a basic understanding of psychology in order to write realistic content, dialogues, characters, and relationships. One such psychological concept is psychological testing and assessment. This is a particularly important area for many writers as more and more writers are writing about mental illness or creating characters who have a form of mental illness. Understanding the basics behind how psychological tests and assessments are created can allow a writer to realistically create their own fictional tests and assessments for their characters.

A psychological test is considered to be “a measuring device or procedure”, yet not all tests are always considered good tests (Cohen and Swerdlik, 2018). In order to understand what makes an assessment a good test, one first must identify the various aspects of a good test. Understanding the various aspects of a good test, in turn, allows one to understand why people choose a test, the advantages of tests, the limitations of tests, and for whom tests are developed.

A Good Test

The main criteria for having a good test are clear instructions, straightforward interpretation, reliability, validity, and a yield of actionable results that benefits test takers or society as a whole. In order for test developers to make a good test, the five stages of test development must be followed these five stages are:

1. test conceptualization

2. test construction

3. test tryout

4. item analysis

5. test revision

The process of developing a good test begins when the idea for the test is conceived, then developers write the test items, format the test, set the goals for scoring, and conclude the formation of the test (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2018). Once the test is fully formed, the developers administer it to a representative sample whose scores are used to analyze the test to determine if any revisions are needed; the final step in developing a good test is to make the needed revisions to the test based on the conducted item analysis.

Validity and Reliability

Two important aspects of a good test are validity and reliability. Validity is the degree to which a measurement measures what it purports to measure while reliability denotes the degree to which the results can be successfully replicated (Bolarinwa, 2015). Test developers can ensure validity by choosing a testing method that will, in fact, determine what the test is designed to measure. The easiest way to ensure this is to administer the test to a small sample of the intended testing population and evaluate the test's effectiveness in determining what it purports to measure. If the test does measure what it purports to measure, then the test can be considered valid; however, if it fails, then the developers can make revisions to the testing method to ensure its validity.

Test developers can ensure reliability during the test development stages by making certain that the procedures and testing instructions are clearly written in a manner that would allow for test replication. For example, if the test is on how children respond to different types of toys, then the test instructions need to clearly state the types of toys, the instructions for the test administrator, the type of testing environment, and the ages of the children. These details would allow the test to be replicated by others and if the test were reliable then, upon replication, similar results would be seen.