Handbooks on psychological assessment have proliferated and we can expect to see new volumes published
regularly such as the recent three volume APA Handbook of Testing and Assessment in Psychology (Geisinger et al.,
2013), and the Oxford Handbook of Child Psychological Assessment (Saklofske et al., 2013 ). Other major resources
include the 11-volume Test Critiques series ( Keyser & Sweetland, 1984 /C01994; Keyser, 2005 ), the APA PsycTESTS
online database (focusing mainly on unpublished tests, not commercially available), as well as the current edi-
tors’ 4-volume SAGE Psychological Assessment series ( Boyle, Saklofske, & Matthews, 2012 ), all of which have
become increasingly important to researchers and practitioners alike (also see Boyle & Saklofske, 2004; Boyle,
Matthews, & Saklofske, 2008).
Another important tool for finding relevant measures of focal constructs is the Health and Psychosocial
Instruments (HaPI) database, produced by Behavioral Measurement Database Services (BMDS; Pittsburgh, PA,
USA/C0available online from Ovid Technologies).
‘The HaPI database can be used to find alternative versions of existing instruments (e.g., original vs. short forms; state vs. trait
forms; adult vs. child versions), available translations of instruments, and multiple scoring frameworks for a given instrument ...The
flexibility of combinatory searching (e.g., optimism ‘and’ trait ‘and’ English ‘and’ children) offers far greater power and efficiency in
finding measurement tools than the printed sources can provide. But the sources cover a plethora of tests ranging across a diversity of
fields including education and psychology.’ ( Bryant, Pers. Comm., 2012 )
Professional Associations such as the American Education Research Association and the American Psychological
Association , as well as the Association for Psychological Science have assessment ‘right up front’ in their publica-
tions and conferences and ongoing continuing education offerings, as well as working diligently to ensure
‘best practices’ and ethical guidelines for use of psychological tests. The Standards for Educational and Psychological
Testing (AERA, APA, NCME, 1999) are regularly updated in light of new knowledge (cf. Boyle, 1987 ). This effort
has been further supported by the International Test Commission (ITC); the first sentence on the ITC webpage
states that it is an
‘association of national psychological associations, test commissions, publishers and other organizations committed to promoting
effective testing and assessment policies and to the proper development, evaluation and uses of educational and psychological instru-
ments.’ ( ITC Directory, 2001 ,a twww.intestcom.org )
Most professional and regulatory psychology associations see assessment for purposes of diagnosis and pre-
scription planning as being central to the work of psychological practitioners, as expressed through their publica-
tions, guidelines and codes of ethical conduct.
However, there is a downside to this proliferation of scales and information that is both cumulative and forth-
coming on a continuous basis. It has become more difficult for researchers to determine and locate the bestvali-
dated scales for a given construct as they can be scattered through a multitude of journals and books, and also in
commercial presentations by publishers. Not all journals are necessarily available to those who might be inter-
ested in a particular measure or even traceable using internet searches. The internet is a mixed blessing here;
ease of search is offset by the intrusions of poor-quality measures into the scientific as well as popular literature.
As well, some scales have names or titles that do not directly relate to the construct being assessed and can there-
fore be missed in a typical online search.
AIMS AND ORIGINS OF THIS VOLUME
The aim of the present volume is to assist researchers and practitioners navigate these ‘choppy waters’ and
locate valid scales/measures suitable for their specific goals from the plethora of instruments currently available.
Thus, rather than simply serving as a catalogue of available scales and assessment instruments, or providing
reviews of all currently available measures that would fall within the personality and social psychology frame-
works, we have focused this volume predominantly on reviewing the most often used contemporary measures
by experts in each of the areas selected for inclusion.
The origins of this volume go back over 50 years to a collection of social attitude measures compiled by the
Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan (see Robinson & Shaver, 1969 ). The original work was sub-
stantially updated and configured as an edited volume by Robinson, Shaver and Wrightsman in 1991. Its scope
was increased to cover personality as well as attitude measures. The current editors share the goals of previous4 1. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION AND EVALUATION OF SCALES AND MEASURES
I. INTRODUCTION: CORE ISSUES IN ASSESSMENT