A World Without Psychological Tests
We’ve all done it. If you’re American, you did it as you sat down to write your SATs in junior year. Maybe you did it as you reluctantly spent an entire summer studying for the MCAT. Or maybe you’re doing it now as you scroll through this blog. You ask yourself, “what’s the point of psychological tests?” and on occasion you may even wonder if they are trying to ruin your life. With each passing day it seems like more and more facets of our lives are subject to intense scrutiny and evaluation. I decided to investigate what really IS the point of all this testing. With this question in mind, I also began to wonder what our world would be like if Galton, the father of mental testing, never sparked his interest in measurement.
One of my first discoveries was that there are actually several different categories of psychological tests. From intelligence tests (probably our least favourite), to personality tests, all the way to neuropsychological tests, there surely seems no shortage of motivation to test people. The most common use of these psychological tests is to make decisions about people, however it doesn’t end there. Tests are used for classification, diagnosis and treatment planning, program evaluation, research, and sometimes purely for self-knowledge. So… how does this affect our lives, you ask?
We should start by thinking of some important people in our society (doctors, professors, lawyers etc.) who had no choice but to undergo intense standardized testing. Without aptitude tests, the skills and competencies of such personnel might be adequate at best. Then I think of myself, and how useful interest inventories and personality tests were in leading me to pursue a career in medicine. Without such clever tools would I have found myself miserably faking my way through financial accounting classes? And, of course, we can’t forget to mention all of the times when psychological tests are useful for the people we love.
Picture this…
It’s the first week of kindergarten and your younger brother is experiencing difficulties in school. A psychologist administers the Stanford-Binet intelligence test to diagnose his developmental or intellectual deficiency. Your aunt just recently suffered from a severe stroke, affecting her executive cognitive abilities. Her neuropsychologist uses the Tower of London test to assess the extent of her brain damage. Your best friend suddenly can’t get out of bed and is expressing feelings of hopelessness. His referred psychologist uses the Beck Depression Inventory-II to measure the presence or severity of depression.
It’s beginning to seem that without psychological tests, we could never discover the nature of our problems or the best ways to address them. We might also never know the depths of our capabilities and individuality. Your dyslexic brother may never get the extra tutoring he needs in order to pass grade school. Your aunt may be regarded as irrational and unsound, rather than someone with severe brain damage. Your best friend might continue in his downward spiral, suffering in silence and never receiving the assessment and support he needs. And, well, without achievement testing in school, you might never have been capable of reading this right now.
So the next time you catch yourself thinking “oh no, not another one”, remember that without psychological tests we would irrefutably be lost in a chaotic world... And maybe, just maybe, you should thank Galton for being the innovator that he was.
