Overview

This unit provides students with an understanding of the fundamentals of psychological measurement. Students will gain familiarity with the general process of developing psychological scales, including a variety of measurement methods and administration formats. The unit addresses topics in basic psychometric theory, including reliability, validity, and norms. Students will be given the opportunity to develop professionally relevant skills and experience in the selection, construction and evaluation of psychological tests and measures. This unit will help students adapt skills learned in previous studies to the analysis and communication of contemporary problems in psychological measurement.

Requisites

Prerequisites
STA70007 Analysis of Variance and Regression
PSY70015 Developmental Psychology
PSY70014 Cognition and Human Performance

Rules

Pre-requisite
STA70007 Analysis of Variance and Regression
AND
PSY70015 Developmental Psychology
AND
PSY70014 Cognition and Human Performance

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Teaching Period 1
Location
Online
Start and end dates
11-March-2024
09-June-2024
Last self-enrolment date
24-March-2024
Census date
05-April-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
26-April-2024
Results released date
02-July-2024
Teaching Period 2
Location
Online
Start and end dates
08-July-2024
06-October-2024
Last self-enrolment date
21-July-2024
Census date
02-August-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
23-August-2024
Results released date
29-October-2024

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Explain the characteristics of a good psychological measure and evaluate the usefulness and appropriateness of a specific instrument for a specific application
  • Explain the steps involved in the development of psychological measures, and design their own program for the development and validation of a new measure
  • Calculate, report, and interpret key statistics relevant to scale development and evaluation
  • Evaluate a range of different measurement formats and methods, explaining the pros and cons of each
  • Work collaboratively with peers to achieve project outcomes
  • Reflect on ethical issues in psychological measurement

Teaching methods

Swinburne Online

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Live Online
Class
1.00 4 weeks 4
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning
12.17 12 weeks 146
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Online TestsIndividual 10% 1,2,3,4 
ReportIndividual 40% 1,2,5,6 
ReportIndividual 50% 1,2,3,4,6 

Content

  • Theories and methods for psychological measurement
  • Fundamentals of test construction
  • Methods for evaluating the properties and quality of tests
  • Administration and scoring of tests
  • Cultural appropriateness and sensitivity
  • Professional and ethical issues in psychological measurement and research

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.