Since the late 1960s increased awareness and criticism have prompted greater efforts to establish legal controls and more explicit safeguards against misuse of testing materials. A wide range of testing procedures is used in the United States and elsewhere. Achievement tests are designed to assess current performance in an academic area and are often used to predict future academic success. Aptitude tests predict future performance in an area in which a person is not currently trained. Schools, businesses, and government agencies often use aptitude tests when assigning individuals to specific positions.
Intelligence tests measure a person's global capacity to cope with the environment.
Test scores are generally known as intelligence quotients, or IQs. In clinics and hospitals, psychological tests may be administered for purposes of diagnosis and planning treatment. Objective personality tests measure social and emotional adjustment and identify a need for psychological counseling. Some personality tests are based on the phenomenon of projection, a mental process described by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud as the tendency to attribute to other people those personal feelings or characteristics that are too painful to acknowledge. The Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test are projective tests.