By Their Tests We Will Know Them

Abstract

An examination of the tests clinicians use can expose the clinicians’ beliefs. Their definition of a construct should be evident in the description of the test they use to measure the construct. Further examination of the test should provide evidence of aspects they endorse or at least tolerate in the measurement of the construct. In this article, striking differences in philosophical views behind a construct are demonstrated through an examination of a type of scale found in personality and vocational preference inventories. Next, several subtests of sentence production as a particular type of language expression are examined to demonstrate differences in authors’ views. The subtests are examined to disclose definitions of expressive language as found in sentence production and the restrictions on those definitions imposed by the measurement methods chosen. A clinician’s choice regarding which measure to use should be based on agreement with the test authors regarding essential aspects of measuring expressive language.