Personality tests measure unobservable psychological factors such as an individual’s attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors in relation to others.

Interest tests or interest inventories measure a person’s preferences and motivations, including what types of activities a person enjoys, the products he or she are most likely to purchase, and motivational factors such as things that make an individual feel happy versus neutral.

Aptitude or ability tests measure an individual’s attained skill level in any number of subjects such as mathematics, reading comprehension, or problem solving. Aptitude testing is also known as educational testing.

Intelligence tests are designed to measure, through a refined testing process combining various approaches to aptitude testing, a person’s innate level of intelligence.

Achievement tests are a form of aptitude testing that measure maximum performance of learned skills

Occupational tests are a combination of aptitude and interest tests utilized in social service agencies, career counseling, high school counseling, and in recruitment and employee development.

Behavioral tests are a part of personality testing used in determining why people make decisions, environmental factors that precipitate behaviors, how people react to consequences, and how they learn. They are often used in substance abuse counseling, correctional facilities and mental health centers; as well as when testing children for behavioral disorders.

Creativity tests use pictures, drawing and sentence completion to measure thought processes. They are used in early childhood development testing such as in preschools and kindergartens, in private counseling such as art therapy, and in school counseling in determining special needs education and giftedness

Neuropsychological testing includes clinical testing for an individual’s perceptions, sensory functions, cognitive functions, and motor functions. These tests are applied to patients with mental or behavioral disabilities, brain injuries, those suffering from depression or trauma, and other clinical applications. Neuropsychological assessment is often administered in batteries, or groups of tests designed to cover all possible areas of brain impairment.