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MERLOT II

Peer Review

Online Psychological Tests

 

Ratings

Overall Rating:

 3 stars
Content Quality: 2 stars
Effectiveness: 2.75 stars
Ease of Use: 3.75 stars
Reviewed: May 06, 2007 by Psychology
Overview: The material is part of a larger HealthPlace.com site that describes itself as "the largest consumer mental health site, providing comprehensive information on psychological disorders and psychiatric medications from both a consumer and expert point of view." The resource material is created by journalists employed by the site who specialize in writing health articles and content.
Learning Goals: From this page, students can access tests/surveys related to the following issues: abuse, addictions, ADD/ADHD, anxiety, bipolar disorders, depression, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, intelligence, personality, personality disorders, relationships, sexual health, and stress. The purpose of the tests is to provide users with education and entertainment regarding general mental health and specific mental health problems. The tests are not intended to replace a formal psychiatric diagnosis.
Target Student Population: Undergraduate and graduate students taking classes in abnormal, clinical, counseling, and personality psychology.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: None.
Type of Material: This is a collection of online psychological tests pertaining to areas such as addictions, intelligence, personality, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Recommended Uses: This material would be useful for students taking classes in abnormal, clinical, counseling, and personality psychology. While some tests might be used for illustrative purposes in an undergraduate introductory psychology course, most could be used by more advanced students in an exercise that involves assessing their reliability and validity. It should be stressed that the tests are designed for entertainment.
Technical Requirements: None.

Evaluation and Observation

Content Quality

Rating: 2 stars
Strengths: The quality of the material is acceptable. Most of the measures have high face validity (i.e., it is clear what they are measuring), so users can get a good idea about the nature of specific disorders or personal characteristics.
Concerns: Because most of the tests are for entertainment purposes, it is not clear how valid they are in accurately assessing the user. However, the site does a good job at stressing that these tests do not substitute for a diagnosis from a mental health professional.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating: 2.75 stars
Strengths: The material might be used by instructors who want to give their students a general overview of specific characteristics or disorders. Students can also engage in self-assessments that might be useful for class discussions or to supplement class or textbook materials.
Concerns: The tests and surveys available at this site are, for the most part, unvalidated and unreliable questionnaires that should be used for entertainment purposes only. Students, especially introduction to psychology students, may not have fully grasped the concepts of reliability and validity, and think that because these tests/surveys are in print (and especially if the page is used in an assignment) that they are just as valid as tests used in clinical and research settings.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating: 3.75 stars
Strengths: The tests are organized by general content areas, clearly labeled, and easy to access. Most of the links work.
Concerns: Around 23 or 24 of the 145 links on the page are to pages that are no longer available. To access some of the active links, students would have to register and log onto a particular website. Because this is a commercial site linking to other commercial sites, there is no shortage of pop-ups and distracting advertisements.
Other Issues and Comments: All of the tests included on this site can be found elsewhere online. However, this site does a good job in organizing the tests into general categories.