Psychological testing has firmly established itself as a diagnostic procedure in clinical practice. The tests employed and the diagnostic uses to which they are put are well known and it is not proposed to review them here. Rather let us face the fact that diagnostic testing is at present in a state of relative stagnation. Anyone surveying the tremendous development of clinical psychology during the last ten years, and the major importance that psychological testing assumes in such clinical practice, cannot help but be struck by the small amount of progress we have made in developing our psychological tests as diagnostic instruments. Our advances have been in the expansion of physical facilities, in the extension of clinical services, rather than in the improvement of our existing diagnostic techniques and the discovery of new ones. This paper will offer a possible explanation of our lack of progress and suggest certain lines of attack upon our problems that may help to move us out of the present doldrums.
To do this it is necessary to return to fundamentals. My suggestions will stem from two basic premises concerning the fundamental nature of testing:
- The main contribution of the psychological test is that it offers an opportunity of sampling a subject's behavior in a standard situation.