My first professional publication in 1963 was as a graduate student (with Harrison Gough) on a validational study of a culture-fair test. Since then, I have taught a course on psychological testing with fair regularity. At the same time, I have steadfastly refused to specialize and have had the opportunity to publish in several different areas, to work in management consulting, to be director of a counseling center and of a clinical psychology program, to establish an undergraduate honors program, and to be involved in a wide variety of projects with students in nursing, rehabilitation, education, social work, and other fields. In all of these activities, I have found psychological testing to be central and to be very challenging and exciting.

In this book, we have tried to convey the excitement associated with psychological testing and to teach basic principles through the use of concrete examples. When specific tests are mentioned, they are mentioned because they are used as an example to teach important basic principles, or in some instances, because they occupy a central/historical position. No attempt has been made to be exhaustive.

Much of what is contained in many testing textbooks is rather esoteric information, of use only to very few readers. For example, most textbooks include several formulas to compute interitem consistency. It has been our experience, however, that 99% of the students who take a course on testing will never have occasion to use such formulas, even if they enter a career in psychology or allied fields.