Psychometric Properties

Steven J. Osterlind

Appraisal of human characteristics—such as achievement, ability, proficiency, attitude, belief, or another construct—is routinely accomplished through administration of a test, which is itself often carefully developed and administered by standardized protocols. Examinees and other test users are usually interested only in the results yielded by a test administration; generally they are not attuned to characteristics or technical features of the instrument itself. Still, many persons who use test results realize that the usefulness and appropriateness of test-score interpretation is a direct result of the test's internal characteristics. The internal attributes of a test are technically termed its psychometric properties . Psychometric properties are characteristics of tests and other measures of human characteristics that identify and describe attributes of an instrument, such as its reliability or appropriateness for use in a particular circumstance. Most commonly, psychometric properties provide information about a test's appropriateness, meaning-fulness, and usefulness—in other words, its validity. As ...

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