Some Emerging Trends in Psychlolgical Measurement: A Fifty-Year Perspective

Abstract

Developments in psychological measurement over a 50-year period reveal a growing awareness of the modifiability of human behavior, as exemplified in cross-cultural comparisons, as well as in intergenera tional changes within a single culture. Implications for testing are examined with special reference to the need for considering the context in which test takers devel oped and the contexts in which they are expected to function. Norms are viewed as the test performance of a population at a particular time and place. This orien tation affects the interpretation of test scores. At a more basic level, cohort studies reveal systematic pop ulation changes. Cognitive scores may rise or decline, depending on concomitant societal changes. Progres sive changes in attitudes, self-concepts, and other af fective traits may in turn influence cognitive develop ment. Affective variables may thus serve as intervening variables in the complex chain of events from genes to aptitudes. The traits identified by factor analysis are being increasingly recognized as descrip tive categories for summarizing behavioral consisten cies, rather than as underlying, fixed, causal entities. For testing purposes, this orientation provides flexibil ity in developing and choosing tests that fit the needed level, from highly specific behavioral units, through group factors of intermediate breadth, to such broad factors as scholastic aptitude. From a theoretical view point, the question of factor formation becomes mean ingful, insofar as the very traits into which intelligence becomes organized reflect the influence of individuals' learning histories and the experiential contexts in which they were reared.