This is the first post in a short series for anyone wanting to become familiar with APA PsycTests®. Today we’ll cover what you’ll find in APA PsycTests, how to begin your search for a test, and resources to learn more about searching APA PsycTests.
Are you looking for a test to use in your research, or
planning to develop your own? We have a database that can help!
APA PsycTests provides detailed information about the use of thousands of tests, scales, and measures reported in the behavioral sciences literature. Designed to connect researchers, students, educators, librarians, and practitioners with assessment tools, APA PsycTests is an ideal starting point for a new research project, helping you to avoid “reinventing the wheel” as you’re considering your metrics.
APA PsycTests® can help you find an existing test that you can reuse in your own research. In doing so, you may want to evaluate the psychometric data that were reported by the original test developer.
Psychometrics is the branch of psychology that studies the quantification and measurement of mental attributes, behavior, and performance, as well as the design, analysis, and improvement of the tests and other instruments used in such measurement.
You will find three types of psychometrics included in an APA PsycTests record, when the information is provided by the original author and publisher of the test.
Reliability describes the consistency of scores across contexts (e.g., different times, items, or raters), and provides an estimate of the amount of score variance that is due to true variance between subjects rather than to error.
Validityis the degree to which a test or instrument is capable of measuring the stated construct, rather than some other trait or concept.
Factor Analysis is a broad family of mathematical procedures that reduce a set of interrelations among stated factors to a smaller set of unobserved latent factors.
Join us this fall for
a Beyond Subject Searching webinar – designed for librarians and other
expert users of PsycINFO. If you’re looking to expand your search skills, or
just need a PsycINFO refresher, we hope you’ll join us!
This 45 minute session
includes a behind the scenes look at the PsycINFO record structure and live
search demos.
Learn how to use
PsycINFO for more than just locating articles, such as identifying the types of
research being done at a particular institution and finding journals in which
to publish new work.
We’ll also search for
information on grants and sponsorships, and on tests and measures and will
highlight our Record Structure and Field Guide — tools that can help you become
your library’s PsycINFO expert.
PsycTESTS is APA’s
research database that provides access to psychological tests, measures,
scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about
each test and its development and administration.
In May 2019, APA
released a major update for PsycTESTS, which restructured how records display
and added new searchable and descriptive fields.
If you use PsycTESTS on
EBSCOhost, you can register for a webinar scheduled for Wednesday, September 25, to learn
more about the new features.
If you use PsycTESTS on ProQuest, keep an eye on our Vendor Reload Status
page or ask your vendor when these changes
will go live. A training from APA will be coming soon!
Welcome to “From the Deck of . . .” an irregular series in which we highlight search demos and other information from the slide decks we create for our live training sessions. You can view and download these materials from theAPA Publishing Training SlideShare account.
At the ACRL meeting this month, we presented a Lunch & Learn training session covering updates and search tips for APA’s databases.
The presentation covered the recent thesaurus update, upcoming changes to the PsycTESTS database, and features of the My PsycNET platform manager.
Live demos included the following example searches:
using thesaurus terms
updating a saved search with the new thesaurus terms
using PsycINFO’s tests & measures field to find a known test
We
recently released an update to the Thesaurus
of Psychological Index Terms. The Thesaurus provides precise and consistent
terminology for searching all APA research databases. We added 305 new “preferred”
Index Terms and approximately 70 new non-postable or “use” references*.
Each item in the APA databases – journal articles, books and book chapters, dissertations, and more – is represented by a record that is indexed, or tagged, with Index Terms from the Thesaurus. The use of a controlled vocabulary allows someone searching a database to quickly find all items about a specific concept — such as Animal Behavior, Marginalized Groups, or Prescription Drug Misuse — no matter what terminology or keywords the authors used.
Reflecting emerging
areas, technologies, and social issues as well as changing nomenclature, this
updated vocabulary will provide users with more targeted and efficient search
and discovery. Additionally, we added new terminology in the expanding areas of
psychological assessment, psychometrics, and research methods. You can view
more details on our web page, What’s New in the
2019 Update, including a link to the full
list of new and updated Index Terms (PDF, 135KB).
