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How to Make a Psychometric Test: Principles of Scale Development, Reliability and Validity

Learn how to create a psychometric test and explore the techniques that psychologists use to enhance their quality.

  • Duration

    2 weeks

  • Weekly study

    10 hours
Overview
Requirements
Educators

On this course you will be introduced to the scale development process and be given the opportunity to create a new personality test on a personality trait of your choice.

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your understanding of the concepts of reliability and validity and the important role that they play in determining the quality of psychometric tests.

You will become familiar with how specific statistical techniques, such as Cronbach’s alpha, are conducted and how to report these in a scientific research report.

What topics will you cover?

• Defining psychometric tests

• Understanding reliability

• Understanding validity

• How to conduct Cronbach’s alpha using statistical software

• How to create psychometric test items

• Reporting a scale development process in a scientific research report format.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Define the concepts of reliability and validity
  • Produce examples of a selection of reliability and validity tests
  • Design a set of new psychometric test items.
  • Evaluate the face validity of another person’s psychometric test items.
  • Apply the principles of reliability and validity to a psychometric test that you have created yourself.
  • Develop a Cronbach’s alpha analysis on a data set.
  • Assess the internal consistency of a psychometric test that you have created.
  • Summarise the scale development process in a scientific research report format.
  • Evaluate the strengths and limitations of a psychometric test that you have created.

Who is the course for?

This course is for individuals who would like to find out how to create a psychometric test and explore the techniques that psychologists use to improve and enhance their quality.

Please note that the staff described in the ‘Who will you learn with?’ section below may be subject to change.

Who will you learn with?

Dr Andre Soares

Andre Soares PhD, MSc, BSc, FHEA, CPsychol – assistant professor in business and occupational psychology at Coventry University

Who developed the course?

Coventry University

Coventry secured 5 QS Stars for Teaching and Online Learning in the QS World University Ranking 2020 and has received No. 1 in the world for Massive Open Online Courses in MoocLab’s World University Ranking 2021.

  • Established

    1992

  • Location

    Coventry

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control

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