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Psychology students and practitioners often need to find information about psychological tests and measures
In this tutorial, I'll demonstrate how to use the Tests & Measures field of the PsycINFO database,
and I'll explain how this differs from the PsycTESTS database.
One great source for information about psychological tests is APA's PsycTESTS database,
which has information on thousands of tests, including reliability and validity,
information about how tests were developed, subsequently used, and reviewed, permissions information, and much more!
To learn more about PsycTESTS, see our playlist of PsycTESTS tutorials.
You might wonder how the information in the
PsycTESTS database differs from that
in the Tests & Measures field of the PsycINFO database.
For journal articles, books, and other research documents covered in the PsycINFO database,
if the authors mention, usually in the Methodology section of their work,
having used a test or measure, we include it in the Tests & Measures field of the PsycINFO record.
This is helpful if you want to see how a test was used by other researchers and what the results of that test use were.
You might search PsycINFO for tests in two ways:
Search for your research topic and then examine the Tests & Measures field of your best results
to see what tests researchers are using.
Or, if you have a particular test in mind,
you can search the Tests & Measures field to find all PsycINFO records for research that used this test.
In this tutorial, I'll demonstrate both approaches.
In our first example, let's say you know your research topic, but you don't know what tests instruments are used in the field.
In this case, I am looking for research on how diabetes mellitus affects decision-making skills.
Now let's click on the first record to see what tests were used in that study.
The names of these instruments are listed in the Tests & Measures field because the authors used them in their study
As you look at this field in your results, you will find test instruments that you might consider for your own study.
Note also that, when possible, the DOI links are provided.
These links will take you to the PsycTESTS record for the measure, if you or your institution subscribe to the PsycTESTS database.
In our next example, we know the test we are interested in, and we're looking for research that has used it.
In this example, I am looking for research that has used the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory.
We can type that into the search box and then select the Tests & Measures field from the drop-down menu.
Now click Search, and here are the results.
Let's open this first record and look at the Tests & Measures field.
Note again that, when possible, we provide a link to the PsycTESTS record where you can find even more details.
You may occasionally see the word "appended" in the Tests and Measures field.
When a source document includes the test in its entirety,
we include the word "appended" next to that test's name.
This means that if you have access to the full text of the document, you will find the test included,
usually as an appendix.
When possible, these appended tests also appear in the PsycTESTS database.
You can search for "appended" in the Tests & Measures field to find them all.
I hope this helps you use the Tests & Measures field of the PsycINFO database.
For more search tips and strategies, please see our YouTube channel or the APA website.
Thank you!