Finding Test & Measurements: Home

When constructing a research study in psychological research there are certain areas of study that are difficult to measure - these are often called constructs and include personality, emotions, attitudes and abilities. Researchers have developed specific tests that measure these constructs and there are two main tools in the library that can help you find them. Watch the video below to learn more! 

FINDING TEST & MEASURES

1. Mental Measures Yearbook with Tests in Print is a great tool for discovering tests and measures. You can search this tool by using "Test Category" filter - towards the bottom of the search page under Search Options. Select a category such as "personality" that you are interested in. Then click the yellow search button.

2. This will pull up all the tests and measurements related to personality. 

3. Or you can search by keyword at the top of the page for a trait you would like to measure such as empathy. You should also consider adding a population to the second box such as high school and selecting "PO Population" from the drop-down menu next to the search box. Note: its best to brainstorm multiple terms for your population group as there is no controlled vocabulary for populations and put these terms in parentheses.

4. If you are looking for a specific measurement, enter the title then select TI Test Name from the drop-down menu next to the search boxes.

5. When you find a measurement, click the title to learn more about it such as the author, purpose, population and category.

6. NOTE: Mental Measures Yearbook & Tests in Print does not provide full-text measurements, or access to the actual tests. Instead it provides links to reviews of the measurements, a summary of the test and recommendations. As you can see in the example below, the HTML full-text present in the Applied Knowledge Test record page is actually a review of the test by a different researcher.  You may have to contact the publisher if you want the full-text measurement. However, there may be other sources. Contact your librarian for help! 

FINDING TESTS & MEASUREMENTS

1. PsycTESTS provides full-text access to psychological tests and measures from the APA. To begin searching this database, click "Select Databases" above the search bar and select only "PsycTESTS." 

2. Then enter your keywords or the title of the measurement you are looking for and click search.

3.  On the left side of the results page, take advantage of the filter options to narrow your results to more relevant measurements. Population, age group, and test instrument are particularly useful. 

4. Once you find a measurement that seems interesting click the title to learn more. On the record page, you can read the purpose and description, find more about the author, and access the PDF in the upper right corner.

Some federal agencies and research and professional organizations have publicly-available measures. Examples include the following: