International Test Commission

Last updated

The International Test Commission (ITC) is an association of national psychological associations, test commissions, organizations and individuals, who promote "the proper development, evaluation and uses" of educational and psychological tests. [1] The ITC is a non-profit organization, affiliated to the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS). The ITC stimulates international cooperation on research projects relevant to a scientifically and ethically sound use of tests. [2] ITC develops guidelines on the use of tests; holds a biennial international conference; publishes a peer-reviewed journal (International Journal of Testing) and a newsletter (Testing International).

Contents

History

The founding of the ITC was due to the efforts of Jean Cardinet (Switzerland), who presented his concerns with the ethical use of psychological tests to the General Assembly of the Swiss Psychological Society in 1968. [3] In 1971, the Swiss Professional Association of Applied Psychology published a set of regulations to promote the quality and prevent the abuse of tests. Cardinet initiated a project to create national test commissions in all countries using psychological tests. [4] His idea was approved by the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) in 1971; and by 1974, at least 15 national test commissions existed. [5]

In 1975, an advisory council of the emerging ITC met to draft a constitution and agree on first initiatives, including a public survey of test attitudes. [6] The ITC was officially "born" in 1976, during the Congress of the International Union of Psychological Sciences (IUPsyS), where its constitution was provisionally approved. [3]

The draft constitution defined two membership categories: [7] (a) full members, consisting of national test commissions recognized by the psychological association in their respective country, and (b) affiliate members, who were either international associations with an interest in testing, or national associations from countries not full members of the ITC. The membership structure was amended several times: first in 1998, when affiliate membership was opened to any organization interested in testing (including test publishers or universities, who had not been accepted previously), and then in 2000, when the individual membership category was created.

Today, the ITC membership covers most of the European countries and North America, as well as some countries in the Middle and Far East, South America and Africa.

Initiatives of ITC

International Journal of Testing

The International Journal of Testing (IJT) is the official journal of the ITC published since 1999 by Routledge (now Taylor & Francis Group). There are four issues per year. The IJT publishes original articles discussing theoretical issues, methodological approaches, and empirical research in the area of tests and testing. [8]

Best practice guidelines

Having no policy enforcement powers for the standards in psychological testing at national levels, the ITC promotes good practice in test construction and use through the development of best practice guidelines. To date, the ITC has published the following guidelines:

  1. ITC Guidelines on Adapting Tests (1st Edition; [9] 2nd Edition [10] )
  2. ITC Guidelines on Test Use [11]
  3. ITC Guidelines on Computer-Based and Internet-delivered Testing [12]
  4. ITC Guidelines on Quality Control in Scoring, Test Analysis and Reporting of Test Scores [13]
  5. ITC Guidelines on the Security of Tests, Examinations, and Other Assessments [14]
  6. ITC Guidelines on Practitioner Use of Test Revisions, Obsolete Tests, and Test Disposal
  7. ITC Guidelines for the Large-Scale Assessment of Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Populations

The guidelines may be downloaded in English and various other languages from the ITC website.

Testing International – the ITC newsletter

The newsletter Testing International disseminates information of international relevance to the ITC membership twice a year. Past editions are available to the public from the ITC website.

ITC conferences

The ITC organizes a biannual scientific conference, which usually brings together around 400-500 delegates from around 40 countries. The details of the past and the forthcoming meetings are announced at the ITC website.

Related Research Articles

Psychology Study of mental functions and behaviours

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups. Ψ is a Greek letter which is commonly associated with the science of psychology.

American Psychological Association Scientific and professional organization

The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has 54 divisions—interest groups for different subspecialties of psychology or topical areas. The APA has an annual budget of around $115 million.

Psychological testing Administration of psychological tests

Psychological testing is the administration of psychological tests. Psychological tests are administered by trained evaluators. A person's responses are evaluated according to carefully prescribed guidelines. Scores are thought to reflect individual or group differences in the construct the test purports to measure. The science behind psychological testing is psychometrics.

Applied psychology Application of psychological theories or findings

Applied psychology is the use of psychological methods and findings of scientific psychology to solve practical problems of human and animal behavior and experience. Mental health, organizational psychology, business management, education, health, product design, ergonomics, and law are just a few of the areas that have been influenced by the application of psychological principles and findings. Some of the areas of applied psychology include clinical psychology, counseling psychology, evolutionary psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, legal psychology, neuropsychology, occupational health psychology, human factors, forensic psychology, engineering psychology, school psychology, sports psychology, traffic psychology, community psychology, and medical psychology. In addition, a number of specialized areas in the general field of psychology have applied branches. However, the lines between sub-branch specializations and major applied psychology categories are often blurred. For example, a human factors psychologist might use a cognitive psychology theory. This could be described as human factor psychology or as applied cognitive psychology. When applied psychology is used in the treatment of behavioral disorders there are many experimental approaches to try and treat an individual. This type of psychology can be found in many of the subbranches in other fields of psychology.

Clinical psychology Branch of psychology

Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment, clinical formulation, and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession.

In psychology, a projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the test. This is sometimes contrasted with a so-called "objective test" / "self-report test", which adopt a "structured" approach as responses are analyzed according to a presumed universal standard, and are limited to the content of the test. The responses to projective tests are content analyzed for meaning rather than being based on presuppositions about meaning, as is the case with objective tests. Projective tests have their origins in psychoanalysis, which argues that humans have conscious and unconscious attitudes and motivations that are beyond or hidden from conscious awareness.

Testing effect

The testing effect suggests long-term memory is increased when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving information from memory. It is different from more general practice effect, defined in the APA Dictionary of Psychology as "any change or improvement that results from practice or repetition of task items or activities."

The Lüscher color test is a psychological test invented by Max Lüscher in Basel, Switzerland. Max Lüscher believed that sensory perception of color is objective and universally shared by all, but that color preferences are subjective, and that this distinction allows subjective states to be objectively measured by using test colors. Lüscher believed that because the color selections are guided in an unconscious manner, they reveal the person as they really are, not as they perceive themselves or would like to be perceived.

Paul E. Meehl American psychologist (1920–2003)

Paul Everett Meehl was an American clinical psychologist, Hathaway and Regents' Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, and past president of the American Psychological Association. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Meehl as the 74th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, in a tie with Eleanor J. Gibson. Throughout his nearly 60-year career, Meehl made seminal contributions to psychology, including empirical studies and theoretical accounts of construct validity, schizophrenia etiology, psychological assessment, behavioral prediction, and philosophy of science.

Alan Baddeley British psychologist

Alan David Baddeley, is a British psychologist. He is known for his research on memory and for developing the three-component model of working memory. He is a professor of psychology at the University of York.

William Roger Revelle is a psychology professor at Northwestern University working in personality psychology. Revelle studies the biological basis of personality and motivation, psychometric theory, the structure of daily mood, and models of attention and memory.

Raymond D. Fowler was an American psychologist and Professor Emeritus of the University of Alabama. He was president of the American Psychological Association (1988) and served as APA's executive vice president and chief executive officer (CEO) from 1989 to 2003.

International or global psychology is an emerging branch of psychology that focuses on the worldwide enterprise of psychology in terms of communication and networking, cross-cultural comparison, scholarship, practice, and pedagogy. Often, the terms international psychology, global psychology, transnational psychology, and cross-cultural psychology are used interchangeably, but their purposes are subtly and importantly different: Global means worldwide, international means across and between nations, transnational means to transcend the nation-state, cross-cultural means across cultures. In contrast, the term “multicultural” is more often used to refer to ethnic and other cultural differences existing within a given nation rather than to global or international comparisons.

Irving B. Weiner is an American psychologist and past president of Division 12 of the American Psychological Association. and past president of the Society for Personality Assessment. He is the author and editor of many books on psychology.

The International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) was created in 1919 by Édouard Claparède under the name of International Association of Psychotechnics and the secretary general was Jean-Maurice Lahy. The present name was adopted in 1955. The current president is Christine Roland-Lévy.

The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is an ability-based measure of emotional intelligence. The test was constructed by academics John D. Mayer, Peter Salovey, and David R. Caruso at Yale and the University of New Hampshire in cooperation with Multi-Health Systems Inc. The test measures emotional intelligence through a series of questions and tests the participant's ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions. Using questions based on everyday scenarios, the MSCEIT measures how well people respond to social tasks, read facial expressions, and solve emotional problems. The MSCEIT is used in corporate, educational, research, and therapeutic settings.

Andreas Maercker is a German clinical psychologist and international expert in traumatic stress-related mental disorders who works in Switzerland. He also contributed to lifespan and sociocultural aspects of trauma sequelae, e.g. the Janus-Face model of posttraumatic growth.

Çiğdem Kağıtçıbaşı was a Turkish scientist and professor. She was a university professor since 1969 and received the APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology in 1993.

Campbell paradigm Behavioral theory in social psychology

The Campbell paradigm is a behavioral theory from social psychology. The paradigm was developed by social psychologist Florian Kaiser and his colleagues in 2010, building on an earlier suggestion by Donald T. Campbell, after whom the paradigm is named. It offers an explanation for why and when individuals engage in particular behaviors. It is mainly applied to behaviors that are aimed at fighting climate change and protecting the environment.

Janel Gauthier is a Canadian psychologist with expertise in clinical psychology, human rights and ethics.

References

  1. ↑ ITC mission statement
  2. ↑ "The International Test Commission (ITC) Website". www.intestcom.org. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  3. 1 2 Oakland, Thomas; Poortinga, Ype H.; Schlegel, Justin; Hambleton, Ronald K. (2001). "International Test Commission: Its History, Current Status, and Future Directions". International Journal of Testing. 1 (1): 3–32. doi:10.1207/s15327574ijt0101_2. ISSN   1530-5058. S2CID   143056006.
  4. ↑ Commission Suisse des Tests. (1971). Règlement de la commission suisse des tests visant à promouvoir la qualité des tests psychologiques et à prévenir leur utilisation abusive [Changes to the Swiss Test Commission to promote the quality and prevent the abuse of psychological tests]. Revue Suisse de Psychologie, 30, 340–349.
  5. ↑ Cardinet, Jean (1975). "International Test Commission". Applied Psychology. 24 (1): 14–16. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.1975.tb00322.x. ISSN   0269-994X. S2CID   145194572.
  6. ↑ Poortinga, Ype H; Coetsier, P; Meuris, G; Miller, K M; Samsonowitz, V; Seisdedos, N; Schlegel, J (1982). "A survey of attitudes towards tests among psychologists in six Western European countries". Applied Psychology. 31 (1): 7–33. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.1982.tb00184.x. ISSN   0269-994X.
  7. ↑ Cardinet, Jean (1995). "Prehistory of the International Test Commission English translation by Jacques Grégoire". European Journal of Psychological Assessment. 11 (2): 128–132. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.11.2.128. ISSN   1015-5759.
  8. ↑ International Journal of Testing: Publication of the International Test Commission. http://www.psypress.com/journals/details/1530-5058/ Archived 2014-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ Hambleton, Ronald K (2001). "The Next Generation of the ITC Test Translation and Adaptation Guidelines". European Journal of Psychological Assessment. 17 (3): 164–172. doi:10.1027//1015-5759.17.3.164. ISSN   1015-5759.
  10. ↑ "ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second Edition)". International Journal of Testing. 18 (2): 101–134. 2018-04-03. doi:10.1080/15305058.2017.1398166. ISSN   1530-5058. S2CID   216149078.
  11. ↑ Bartram, Dave (2001). "The Development of International Guidelines on Test Use: The International Test Commission Project". International Journal of Testing. 1 (1): 33–53. doi:10.1207/s15327574ijt0101_3. ISSN   1530-5058. S2CID   143403521.
  12. ↑ Coyne, Iain; Bartram, Dave (2006). "Design and Development of the ITC Guidelines on Computer-Based and Internet-Delivered Testing". International Journal of Testing. 6 (2): 133–142. doi:10.1207/s15327574ijt0602_3. ISSN   1530-5058. S2CID   144145585.
  13. ↑ "ITC Guidelines on Quality Control in Scoring, Test Analysis, and Reporting of Test Scores". International Journal of Testing. 14 (3): 195–217. 2014-07-03. doi:10.1080/15305058.2014.918040. ISSN   1530-5058. S2CID   151724593.
  14. ↑ "The International Test Commission Guidelines on the Security of Tests, Examinations, and Other Assessments". International Journal of Testing. 16 (3): 181–204. 2015-12-21. doi:10.1080/15305058.2015.1111221. ISSN   1530-5058. S2CID   216149862.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.