| AdminHistory | Minute 3105 for the British Psychological Society Council meeting held on 22nd November, 1958 reads: "That a standing committee on tests standards be appointed".
Of the eight members appointed to the founding committee, six were present at the first meeting on 10th February 1959; they elected Professor P.E. Vernon chairman and Mr. D.A. Pidgeon secretary.
The activities of the committee since that first meeting fall into two main phases: up to, September 1968 and from October 1968 onwards.
The significance of the dividing date is that the committee was then given responsibility for vetting proposed short courses for non-psychologists in the use of psychological tests. The initial terms of reference, adequate throughout the first phase, numbered five.
When phase two began, new terms of reference were drawn up. The committee is now a Standing Committee of the Professional Affairs Board, wherever PAB is mentioned the original wording would have been "council".
The committee met 22 times during the first ten years (average 2.2 meetings a year).
In 1959 the committee decided to produce a document which would contain recommendations on training in test use, restrictions of sales, and ethics of borrowing parts of tests for personal or commercial gain. In 1970 the committee elected a separate chairman and secretary to handle specifically the reviews of courses.
The Standing Committee on Test Standards was replaced in 1987 with the Steering Committee on Test Standards which took out course reviews and aimed to encourage test publishers to sell psychometric instruments only to customers who have been trained in their use by appropriately qualified psychologists. This led to the launch of the Certificate of Competencies in Test Standards and Register of Competencies in Occupational Testing RCOT in July 1991, later RCPT [Register of Competence in Psychological Testing]. |
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