Welcome
This guide describes major resources used to locate materials on psychological or behavioral instruments as related to the health sciences. Please note tests can also be referred to as inventories, measurements, psychometric tests, questionnaires, scales, surveys, and tools.
Finding the full test or its related literature is not always easy and often requires checking several resources including directories, textbooks, theses, and databases.
The resources described in this guide may help you find and acquire the actual test instrument or locate the literature that discusses the use and validity of the test.
Sometimes it may be necessary to contact the author or creator of the test to gain access. Often a professional credential is required to administer the test.
What are psychological tests and measurements?
Psychological tests are standardized measures of a particular psychological variable.
Tests can be purchased commercially or unpublished tests can be found in the literature using one of several resources.
More Information
- The American Psychological AssociationFinding Information About Psychological Tests
Advancing measurement sharing
Books
Dictionary of Psychological Testing, Assessment and Treatment by Call Number: Online bookISBN: 1843104946Publication Date: 2007
Handbook of Psychological Assessment by Call Number: Online bookISBN: 9781118960646Publication Date: 2016
Measurement in Nursing and Health Research, Fifth Edition by Call Number: Online bookISBN: 9780826170613Publication Date: 2017
Measures for Psychological Assessment by Call Number: Online bookISBN: 0879441682Publication Date: 1975
Specialized Resources
- Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in PrintProvides a bibliography of commercially available psychology, education, business and leadership tests currently in print.
Databases
- APA PsycInfo (EBSCOhost)PsycINFO contains information about the tests, some full text, and citation information to help you find the full text.
- CINAHL CompleteCumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) contains citations for unpublished and published tests and measures.
- Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI)It provides information about behavioral measurement instruments, including those from Industrial Organizational Behavior and Education. No full text of any instruments it references available.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses GlobalDissertations frequently include copies of a test or instrument used to collect research in the appendix.
more tools...
- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS)Surveys & tools to advance patient-centered care from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality
- Decision Making Individual Differences Inventory (DMIDI)A free, public resource that categorizes and describes the most common individual difference measures used in judgement and decision-making (JDM) research.
- ETS Test Collection databaseA database of more than 25,000 tests and other measurement devices. Also known as TestLink
- Measures Registry [National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research]The Measures Registry is a searchable database of diet and physical activity measures relevant to childhood obesity research.
- RAND Health Care SurveysAll of the surveys from RAND Health Care are public documents, available without charge.
- Social-Personality Psychology Questionnaire Instrument Compendium (QIC)This is a collection of social and personality psychology measures.
Expert Search Tips
Use this search string to locate a tests or measure:
(assessment* OR checklist* OR instrument* OR inventor* OR measure* OR questionnaire* OR scale* OR score* OR survey* OR test OR tests OR tool*)
Add this search string to find validated and reliable tests or measures:
(psychometric* OR reliability OR reliabl* OR validate OR validation OR validity) AND (assessment* OR checklist* OR instrument* OR inventor* OR measure* OR questionnaire* OR scale* OR score* OR survey* OR test OR tests OR tool*)
For a more robust search filter, check out this article:
Terwee CB, Jansma EP, Riphagen II, de Vet HC. Development of a methodological PubMed search filter for finding studies on measurement properties of measurement instruments. Qual Life Res. 2009;18(8):1115-1123. doi:10.1007/s11136-009-9528-5
Psychometric Properties: The following was created for a routine (non-exhaustive) [PubMed] search [taken from this page]:
("Psychometrics"[Mesh] OR psychometric* OR valid* OR reliab* OR responsiv* OR interpretab* OR “measurement error*” OR “error of measurement*” OR “errors of measurement*” OR consistency OR “factor analys*” OR “factor structure” OR “item analys*” OR “item response” OR “item functioning” OR “component analys*” OR “measurement invariance” OR “test construction” OR sensitivity OR specificity OR “statistical rotation” OR “oblique rotation” OR “orthogonal rotation” OR “varimax rotation” OR “split half” OR “test retest” OR interrater OR “inter rater” OR intrarater OR “intra rater” OR “known groups technique” OR stability OR equivalence OR “intraclass correlation coefficient*” OR “intra-class correlation coefficient*” OR icc OR kappa OR “coefficient of correlation” OR “coefficients of correlation” OR “correlation coefficient*” OR “pearson product moment” OR “spearman rho” OR “minimal detectable difference” OR “minimal detectable change”)
