Psychometric tests have been used since the early part of the 20th
century and were originally developed for use in educational
psychology. These days, outside of education, you are most likely
to encounter psychometric testing as part of the recruitment or
selection process. Tests of this sort are devised by occupational
psychologists and their aim is to provide employers with a
reliable method of selecting the most suitable job applicants or
candidates for promotion.
Psychometric tests aim to measure attributes like intelligence,
aptitude and personality. They provide a potential employer with
an insight into how well you work with other people, how well you
handle stress, and whether you will be able to cope with the
intellectual demands of the job.
Most of the established psychometric tests used in recruitment and
selection make no attempt to analyze your emotional or
psychological stability and should not be confused with tests used
in clinical psychology. However, in recent years there has been
rapid growth (particularly in the US) of tests that claim to
measure your integrity or honesty and your predisposition to
anger. These tests have attracted a lot of controversy, because of
questions about their validity, but their popularity with
employers has continued to increase.
Psychometric testing is now used by over 80% of the Fortune 500
companies in the USA and by over 75% of the Times Top 100
companies in the UK. Information technology companies, financial
institutions, management consultancies, local authorities, the
civil service, police forces, fire services and the armed forces
all make extensive use of use psychometric testing.
As an indicator of your personality, preferences and abilities,
psychometric tests can help prospective employers to find the best
match of individual to occupation and working environment. As a
recruitment and selection tool, these tests can be applied in a
straightforward way at the early stages of selection to screen-out
candidates who are likely to be unsuitable for the job. They can
also provide management with guidance on career progression for
existing employees.
Because of their importance in making personnel decisions it is
vital that the tests themselves are known to produce accurate
results based on standardized methods and statistical principles.
A psychometric test must be:
- Objective: The score must not affected by the testers’
beliefs or values
- Standardized: It must be administered under controlled
conditions
- Reliable: It must minimize and quantify any intrinsic errors
- Predictive: It must make an accurate prediction of
performance
- Non Discriminatory: It must not disadvantage any group on
the basis of gender, culture, ethnicity, etc.
Psychometric tests fall into two main categories.
Personality
questionnaires, which try to measure aspects of your personality,
and aptitude tests which try to measure your intellectual and
reasoning abilities.
Everything you need to pass
psychometric tests |
