Family Science

Psychological tests (also known as measures, instruments, or scales) are standardized measures of a particular psychological variable such as personality or emotional functioning. Behavioral science research often involves using psychological tests, whether to simply learn about the test or to use in your own research study.

• Many tests are commercially published and subject to copyright and licensing restrictions—these typically require paying a fee to use and are not available through the Fulton Library. Publishers may require proof that users have the professional credentials to administer the test. If you find a commercially published test you want to use, look for an FAQ page to see if a version is available to student researchers for free or at a reduced cost, or try contacting the publisher to ask.
• In addition to commercial tests, there are countless unpublished tests that researchers design for particular studies in psychology, education, and other fields. These tests may be freely available online or in scholarly articles.

Many psychological tests—both unpublished and commercially published—are described in scholarly articles, including how they were developed and validated, and how they can be used in the field. If an article refers to a specific psychological test that you'd like to view or use in your research, try these strategies for finding it:

• Check the appendixes at the end of the article to see if the author(s) included the full instrument or a note about where it can be found or purchased. Portions of the test may also be included in the main text of the article or in tables or figures.
• Search for the name of the test on Google as a quick way to see if it's available through a commercial publisher or freely available on a website.
• Email the article's lead author, to ask questions about their test or ask if they have a version they're willing to share with student researchers. Author contact information is typically included on the first page of scholarly articles. If it's an older article, the contact information may be out of date—try searching for the author on Google, to see where they're currently working and look for a current email.

Use these databases to find articles that reference specific psychological tests and measures. You can either use a search term to look for tests on a topic (for example, search for "metacognition") or you can search for the name of a test you already know about (for example, search for "Metacognition Assessment Scale").

Please be aware, articles found in these databases frequently do not include full tests—once you find information on a test you'd like to see, use the tips above to see if you can locate the full test. Also these databases often do not include the full text of articles. In these cases, you will need to use citation details to locate articles in another database like OneSearch. Contact your librarian if you need any help using these databases.

Collections of Tests & Measures

Use these books to learn more about published psychological tests and measures, and in some cases view full copies of instruments you can use in your research studies. These books can be really helpful if you need a full copy of an instrument, not just a summary of it.

Designing Surveys and Other Assessments

Use these books to learn best practices and theories for designing your own assessments, such as surveys.

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