Psychological tests provide reliable and objective standards by which individuals can be evaluated in education and employment. Therefore accurate judgements must depend on the reliability and quality of the tests themselves. Originally published in 1986, this handbook by an internationally acknowledged expert provided an introductory and comprehensive treatment of the business of constructing good tests. Paul Kline shows how to construct a test and then to check that it is working well. Covering most kinds of tests, including computer presented tests of the time, Rasch scaling and tailored testing, this title offers: a clear introduction to this complex field; a glossary of specialist terms; an explanation of the objective of reliability; step-by-step guidance through the statistical procedures; a description of the techniques used in constructing and standardizing tests; guidelines with examples for writing the test items; computer programs for many of the techniques. Although the computer testing will inevitably have moved on, students on courses in occupational, educational and clinical psychology, as well as in psychological testing itself, would still find this a valuable source of information, guidance and clear explanation.

Originally published in 1988, in this personal review of the state of academic psychology, Paul Kline draws attention to the way in which his peers at the time studiously avoided such threatening matters as human feelings and emotions, unconscious 'complexes' - in short anything that could be called the human psyche. His erudite, amusing, and provocative text outlines the crucial influence of the development of scientific method before examining key experiments within cognitive psychology and cognitive science, psychometrics, social psychology, and animal behaviour. Is most of experimental psychology trivial, redundant, and irrelevant? The academic subject cannot continue to ignore its critics, he argued, and must solve its problems by means of radical solutions. Whether they support or refute Professor Kline's arguments, students and professionals alike will still enjoy this original book.

Originally published in 1972, this second edition in 1981 was fully revised and updated to cover recent developments in the field at the time. Fact and Fantasy in Freudian Theory was written to answer many questions and criticisms surrounding psychoanalysis. How much, if any, of Freudian theory is verifiable according to the usual criteria of scientific enquiry? Much work had been carried out at the time to discover which parts of Freudian theory are verifiable and which insupportable by experiment. In this book Dr Kline surveys this vast body of work. He takes, one by one, the central postulates of Freudian psychology and discusses the experiments which have been performed to test them. He scrutinizes each test, examines its methodology and its findings and weighs up its value. For some of the theories, it will be seen, there is no evidence whatsoever; for others, on the other hand, there is impressive and sometimes incontrovertible experimental support - for example, for the theory of repression. This work will continue to be an invaluable, highly detailed reference work for those involved with Freud's work, and a book of great interest to those concerned with the method of psychological enquiry in general.

Psychological tests provide reliable and objective standards by which individuals can be evaluated in education and employment. Therefore accurate judgements must depend on the reliability and quality of the tests themselves. Originally published in 1986, this handbook by an internationally acknowledged expert provided an introductory and comprehensive treatment of the business of constructing good tests. Paul Kline shows how to construct a test and then to check that it is working well. Covering most kinds of tests, including computer presented tests of the time, Rasch scaling and tailored testing, this title offers: a clear introduction to this complex field; a glossary of specialist terms; an explanation of the objective of reliability; step-by-step guidance through the statistical procedures; a description of the techniques used in constructing and standardizing tests; guidelines with examples for writing the test items; computer programs for many of the techniques. Although the computer testing will inevitably have moved on, students on courses in occupational, educational and clinical psychology, as well as in psychological testing itself, would still find this a valuable source of information, guidance and clear explanation.

Originally published in 1972, this second edition in 1981 was fully revised and updated to cover recent developments in the field at the time. Fact and Fantasy in Freudian Theory was written to answer many questions and criticisms surrounding psychoanalysis. How much, if any, of Freudian theory is verifiable according to the usual criteria of scientific enquiry? Much work had been carried out at the time to discover which parts of Freudian theory are verifiable and which insupportable by experiment. In this book Dr Kline surveys this vast body of work. He takes, one by one, the central postulates of Freudian psychology and discusses the experiments which have been performed to test them. He scrutinizes each test, examines its methodology and its findings and weighs up its value. For some of the theories, it will be seen, there is no evidence whatsoever; for others, on the other hand, there is impressive and sometimes incontrovertible experimental support - for example, for the theory of repression. This work will continue to be an invaluable, highly detailed reference work for those involved with Freud's work, and a book of great interest to those concerned with the method of psychological enquiry in general.

Factor analysis is a statistical technique widely used in psychology and the social sciences. With the advent of powerful computers, factor analysis and other multivariate methods are now available to many more people. An Easy Guide to Factor Analysis presents and explains factor analysis as clearly and simply as possible. The author, Paul Kline, carefully defines all statistical terms and demonstrates step-by-step how to work out a simple example of principal components analysis and rotation. He further explains other methods of factor analysis, including confirmatory and path analysis, and concludes with a discussion of the use of the technique with various examples.
An Easy Guide to Factor Analysis is the clearest, most comprehensible introduction to factor analysis for students. All those who need to use statistics in psychology and the social sciences will find it invaluable.
Paul Kline is Professor of Psychometrics at the University of Exeter. He has been using and teaching factor analysis for thirty years. His previous books include Intelligence: the psychometric view (Routledge 1990) and The Handbook of Psychological Testing (Routledge 1992).

Related link: Free Email Alerting

The psychometry of intelligence is one of psychology's great achievements yet it is poorly understood. Paul Kline's book provides an introduction to the subject, and provides an acount of the psychometric view of intelligence. Professor Kline explains factor analysis and the construction of intelligence tests and shows how the resulting factors provide a picture of human abilities. He shows the value of such tests in both applied and theoretical psychology and in so doing answers the critics of intelligence testing. It deals with the factorial view yet includes modern work in the cognitive field.

Originally published in 1983 and written in the tradition of the British School of Psychology, Spearman, Burt, Eysenck, Cattell, this book from a well-known author was exceptional at the time in its attempt to wed quantification and psychological theory in the study of personality. The student is presented with a discussion of the different methods of measuring personality and the various findings which have been made. The results are then discussed in the light of psychological theories of personality and here the author stresses the need for a theory with a properly quantified bias. However, the emphasis on findings from measurement and not the measurement itself makes the book psychological, truly about personality and not simply another text on psychological measurement.

This is a clear and accessible introduction to Freudian theory and its status in modern psychology. Paul Kline examines the evidence for and against psychoanalytic theories and shows that, far from being out of date, they can be supported by modern psychological research. He writes for the student and the non-specialist, drawing on numerous, often lighthearted, examples taken from real life and pointing to the implications of his findings for educational, clinical and industrial psychologists. After a brief introduction to Freudian theory and its development through the work of Jung, Adler and Melanie Klein, Paul Kline describes the objections that have been raised to psychoanalytic theories and some possible answers Important aspects of Freudian theory concerning child development, the Oedipus complex, dreaming and the nature of the unconscious are examined to see whether they can be said to be true or false, and are compared when possible with their modern psychological counterparts. The book concludes with a discussion of the broader social implications of Freudian theory and its value for those concerned with child development - parents and educators - and for those involved in mental health. Psychology and Freudian Theory will be welcomed by all those with an interest in human behaviour and by the wide spectrum of social studies students.

This is a clear and accessible introduction to Freudian theory and its status in modern psychology. Paul Kline examines the evidence for and against psychoanalytic theories and shows that, far from being out of date, they can be supported by modern psychological research. He writes for the student and the non-specialist, drawing on numerous, often lighthearted, examples taken from real life and pointing to the implications of his findings for educational, clinical and industrial psychologists. After a brief introduction to Freudian theory and its development through the work of Jung, Adler and Melanie Klein, Paul Kline describes the objections that have been raised to psychoanalytic theories and some possible answers Important aspects of Freudian theory concerning child development, the Oedipus complex, dreaming and the nature of the unconscious are examined to see whether they can be said to be true or false, and are compared when possible with their modern psychological counterparts. The book concludes with a discussion of the broader social implications of Freudian theory and its value for those concerned with child development - parents and educators - and for those involved in mental health. Psychology and Freudian Theory will be welcomed by all those with an interest in human behaviour and by the wide spectrum of social studies students.

Originally published in 1988, in this personal review of the state of academic psychology, Paul Kline draws attention to the way in which his peers at the time studiously avoided such threatening matters as human feelings and emotions, unconscious 'complexes' - in short anything that could be called the human psyche. His erudite, amusing, and provocative text outlines the crucial influence of the development of scientific method before examining key experiments within cognitive psychology and cognitive science, psychometrics, social psychology, and animal behaviour. Is most of experimental psychology trivial, redundant, and irrelevant? The academic subject cannot continue to ignore its critics, he argued, and must solve its problems by means of radical solutions. Whether they support or refute Professor Kline's arguments, students and professionals alike will still enjoy this original book.

Originally published in 1983 and written in the tradition of the British School of Psychology, Spearman, Burt, Eysenck, Cattell, this book from a well-known author was exceptional at the time in its attempt to wed quantification and psychological theory in the study of personality. The student is presented with a discussion of the different methods of measuring personality and the various findings which have been made. The results are then discussed in the light of psychological theories of personality and here the author stresses the need for a theory with a properly quantified bias. However, the emphasis on findings from measurement and not the measurement itself makes the book psychological, truly about personality and not simply another text on psychological measurement.

Many psychological factors are little more than statistical descriptions of particular sets of data and have no real significance. Paul Kline uses his long and extensive knowledge of psychological measurement to argue that truly scientific forms of measurement could be developed to create a new psychometrics. This would transform the basis of psychology and change it from a social science to a pure science.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

Author Biography:
Emeritus Professor of Psychometrics at the University of Exeter and has worked extensively as a consultant in test constuction