CONSTRUCTION OF THE EXAMINATION
The examination development process is intended to maximize the content validity of the EPPP.
The ASPPB Item Development Committee (IDC) is appointed by the ASPPB Board of Directors and charged to oversee the item writing process. Members of the IDC are chosen for their expertise and credentials in the specific domains that comprise the content areas of the EPPP.
The ASPPB Examination Committee (ExC), along with ASPPB’s test vendor, is responsible for the construction of the EPPP. ExC members are appointed by the ASPPB Board of Directors and are chosen for their outstanding credentials and exceptional achievements in their respective specialties. Members of both committees are listed in the "EPPP Exam Information" section of the ASPPB website at
The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards.
A brief outline of the item development process follows: Individuals with expertise in specific domains of the EPPP write questions that are submitted for consideration. Members of the IDC train item writers on how to write questions for the EPPP and how to submit questions to be considered for the EPPP item bank.
1. Once an item is submitted for review, a process of validation occurs between the item writer and a subject-matter expert on the IDC. Items are evaluated for style, format, subject matter accuracy, relevance to practice, professional level of mastery, contribution to public protection, and freedom from bias.
2. Once judged by the IDC subject-matter expert to be of sufficient quality, items receive an additional level of editorial and psychometric review by ASPPB’s test vendor staff to ensure conformity to established psychometric principles and the
EPPP Style Guidelines.
3. Items that are approved by IDC subject-matter experts are then entered into the EPPP Pretest Item Bank.
4. A draft Examination is constructed on the basis of a content outline derived from a job analysis and role delineation study of the profession of psychology (see below). At a meeting of the ExC, the preliminary draft is reviewed item-by-item. Items are reviewed, validated, and/or replaced with bank questions in accordance with the test specifications and the ExC’s expert judgment.
This draft is taken from the Operational Item Bank and so is made up only of items with known psychometric properties.
5. ASPPB’s test vendor staff constructs a second draft of the EPPP in accordance with the ExC review of and comments on the first draft, and at the next meeting of the ExC, this second draft of the Examination is reviewed item-by-item. Committee members use their content expertise and the item statistics to draft a final form of the Examination.
A final form of the Examination is constructed on the basis of the ExC’s second review and comments, and is then uploaded into the Pearson VUE’s system. The finalized form of the EPPP is supplemented with 50 items for pre-testing. These pre-test items are randomly distributed throughout the test and are not counted as part of a candidate’s score. The total number of items on the EPPP will be 225, 175 of which are operational (and will be scored) and 50 of which are pretest items
