THEY'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER

A not so light-hearted spoof of the field of psychological Leating look a over the realm and reason of the psychometrician with a wary eye. Concerned with both the making and taking of tests, the author brings up the difficulties in corraling a control group, the attempts to create a culture-free questionnaire. He hurdles the three general types of tests,- situational, projective, paper and pencil and raises the dismaying question of whether the tests work. His answer is that they work for what some other test aims at, or they work better (seriously) when abetted by interview and interpretation (which can vary horrendously). His main concern, however, is that tests are made just too important, that, the Lesions by their questions become reinforcers or establishers of standards and that they leave no room for the individual quest for greatness, success, or whatever you like; as if, since each person is predestined from infancy, we can hand out handcuffs or PHD's to the cradle set! While this gives some sense and non-sense of a frenetic field, it is more a wild call to arm than a mild proposal to ameliorate.