Psychology and Clinical Psychology: Tests & Measurements

Before you begin looking for psychological tests there are a few things you should know! There are two types of tests: published and unpublished.

Many of the published, or commercial, tests are not freely available; they have copyrights and need to be purchased from the publisher. Sometimes you can find commercially available testing instruments in books or journal articles, but if they're commercial they can't just be photocopied and used.

You can find unpublished tests in psychological literature, particularly in the databases APA PsycInfo and PsycArticles. If you decide you would like to use an unpublished measure in your own research, it's important to contact the test's creator for permission.

On occasion tests can be found for free online. The most accurate way to search for it is to type the test's name in the search engine in quotes, for example: "Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory."

Make sure you check in with Psychology faculty to gain their input on locating and using tests, too!

Database Tips

APA PsycInfo is a great resource for finding information about psychological tests.

If you're looking for a study which discusses a specific test, scroll down to the "Tests & Measures" box under "Search Options" and type in the name of the instrument you'd like to find (i.e. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory).

If you'd like to try to find the test itself, type the name of the test followed by the word "appended" into the "Tests & Measures box." For example: "Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory appended."

Credit: This section of the guide was inspired by Dartmouth College Library's Psychological & Brain Sciences research guide.

These books owned by LIU Brooklyn are recommended for people interested in learning about psychological assessment.