Why do we need to control the use of psychological tests?

Answer 1

Because like a great many advances in humanity,medicine, and data processing, etc. its a thin line between progress and personal invasion...and sometimes we go too far on the personal side to further the financial side.

Answer 2

All experiments must be reviewed by at the minimum, an ethical research committee. This is a direct result of the famous experiments in the 60s conducted by Stanley Milgram.

The subjects were given a button to increasingly shock a person on the other side of the glass (actually the person was an actor). The button did nothing. As the 'shocks' increased and the subjects starting questioning the experimenter in the same room as them, they were told "the experiment must continue". Many subjects continued to 'shock' until it appeared death was imminent.

The psychological community was outraged and all major research facilities began the review processes. So any tests you encounter have been reviewed and approved by several authorites prior to testing.

Answer 3

Psychological tests can be very helpful to psychiatrists and psychologists in assisting in determing mental illnesses or personality factors. They aren't foolproof, however, and can return bad information (for example, if the person taking a test didn't understand a question).

There are some people who might want to use such tests in helping to make hiring decisions, for example, and they may not be trained in how to properly administer the tests, score them, or to be able to identify when the test is returning incorrect information.

These tests are meant to be tools to be used in conjunction with other tools. Some tests may even require a kind of debriefing so that the test subjects fully understand what they mean (the Myers-Briggs is a good example, very informative with a debriefing). Some tests were designed with a specific purpose in mind, the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) was callibrated to help those in the clinical field identify personallity and mental disorders. Unfortunately this meant that the MMPI wasn't callibrated to determine if someone was healthy and normal - so anyone who takes it is likely to be identified with something. The MMPI can be a very useful tool for someone who is trained to use it properly, but it's not for someone who just has a test booklet and wants to give it to their friends.

Answer 4

Be more specific I don't fully undertstand what it is you are asking.

In what way control psychological tests???

Maybe you are worried that by taking psychological tests they may be misinterpreted??? This is possible but don't see how you can control that.