made by Badar e Alam

1. PSYCHOLOGICAL
TESTING
Chapter 10

2. Psychometrics
Psychometric tests fall into two main types:
Ability tests
A wide range of ability tests exist, including:
 Typing tests based on work samples which ask candidates to
type a set amount of text in a certain period of time
 Tests of manual dexterity which would require operators to
slot pegs into holes in a certain sequence and pattern over a
period of time
 Tests of spatial ability to see whether candidates are capable
of operating machinery.
A driving test is probably the best known example of a widely
used ability test

3. Ability tests
Cognitive tests attempt to identify this ability. Generally speaking,
ability tests are divided into three main categories:
Achievement tests, which measure the knowledge and skill that the
person has acquired. The tests mentioned above for bricklayers and
typists would be seen as achievement tests. They are sometimes
known as trade tests.
Aptitude tests, which may be based either on an occupational aptitude,
such as computer programming or sales ability, or related to
‘primary mental abilities’ such as verbal reasoning, numerical ability,
abstract reasoning, clerical speed and accuracy, mechanical
reasoning, spatial ability, spelling and language usage. There are
some tests which specifically measure one of the aptitudes, others
which form a battery of measurements for a range of aptitudes and
are known as ‘differential aptitude batteries’.
Intelligence tests, which attempt to measure intelligence, albeit that
there is some disagreement over the content of intelligence.

4. Personality tests
One of the reasons for its popularity is the ‘read-across’ of personality
factors into occupational suitability. There were, however, some
questions that had a clinical ‘feel’ and made people apprehensive
about its completion. The 16 factors used were:
Cool – warm
Concrete thinking – abstract thinking
Affected by feelings – emotionally stable
Submissive – dominant
Sober – enthusiastic
Expedient – conscientious
Shy – bold
Tough minded – tender minded
Trusting – suspicious
Practical – imaginative
Forthright – shrewd

5. Personality tests
Self assured – apprehensive
Conservative – experimenting
Group oriented – self sufficient
Undisciplined/self conflict – following self image
Relaxed - tense

6. Personality tests
The ‘big five’ personality characteristics
• Extraversion/introversion – gregarious, outgoing, assertive,
talkative and active (extraversion); or reserved, inward-looking,
diffident, quiet, restrained (introversion)
• Emotional stability – resilient, independent, confident,
relaxed; or apprehensive, dependent, under-confident,
tense,
• Agreeableness – courteous, cooperative, likeable, tolerant;
or rude, uncooperative, hostile, intolerant.
• Conscientiousness – hard-working, persevering, careful,
reliable; or lazy, dilettante, careless, expedient.
• Openness to experience – curious, imaginative, willingness
to learn, broad-minded; or blinkered, unimaginative,
complacent, narrow-minded.

7. Personality tests
The five factors cover aspects of human nature reflecting.
 Traits such as being gregarious, assertive, talkative and
active, together with ambition, expressiveness and
impetuousness (extroversion/introversion)
 Aspects such as anxiety, anger, worry, insecurity, together
with resilience and independent thought (emotional stability)
 Social conformity, being courteous, flexible, cooperative,
forgiving, soft hearted, tolerant, trusting or cynical
(agreeableness – sometimes also labeled ‘likeability’)
 Hard working, persevering, careful, organized and preferences
for rules and procedures or spontaneity and creativity
(conscientiousness)
 Curious imaginative, broad minded traits as well as
‘intelligence’ – however defined (openness to experience).

8. Test quality and choice
Validity
Face validity is concerned with the question ‘Does the test appear to
measure what it is supposed to measure?’. This depends o the
nature of the test and the context in which it would be used. Face
validity is concerned with people’s perceptions of what a test
measures, therefore it is not a true kind of validity, and is usually
played down by psychologists, but it is of great practical importance
for selectors wishing to avoid giving offence to candidates and being
ridiculed by line colleagues.
Content validity relates to the question “Do the items in the test
adequately cover every aspect of what the test is supposed to
measure?’. If, for example, the ‘analytical reasoning was identified
as a test subject and defined as a general mental ability involving
both numerical and verbal components, any test designed to
measure “analytical reasoning’ would need to include both
numerical and verbal items; the absence of either one would reduce
the content validity of test.

9. Validity
Construct validity is theoretically the most interesting type because
it relates to the issue of whether the idea behind the test is valid or
not. For practical purposes it is concerned with the question “Does
the test really measure what it is supposed to measure and not
something else?’. If, for example, we established a test for a sixth
dimension of personality, then we would need to demonstrate that
this additional sixth dimension was real and that the test measured
it, rather than measuring one of the big five and naming it in a
different way. Equally, if the test is supposed to be measuring full
personality then it will need to be seen to be measuring
occupational tests are constructed on the basis of the big give and
therefore the focus of attention is usually on the effectiveness of the
test in measuring those dimensions, rather than on the theory
behind the test.
Criterion related validity has the most practical significance for
selectors as it is concerned with the question “Do the scores on the
test relate to anything important in the world of work?’. In
occupational testing ‘anything important’ is usually some measure of
job performance such as supervisor’ ratings, sales achieved,
absence, turnover or achievement.

10. Reliability
Test retest is concerned with the stability of test scores over
time. It involves administering the test to the same individuals
on two or more separate occasions, normally a few weeks
between the scores obtained on the two occasions. Although
in theory there is concern about rehearsing people by
retaking tests, in practice the results of the two or more
occasions will need to be consistent, because different results
will ten to show that it is the test that is inconsistent rather
than the people taking it.
Internal consistency is concerned with the idea that all of the
items within a test should be measuring the same thing and
therefore should be correlated with each other. For example,
if a test question asked ‘Do you prefer going to parties or
learning a new skill?’. It would be an inconsistent question
because the first part of the question will be linked to
“extraversion” and the second part of the question will be
linked to “openness to experience”.

11. Reliability
Parallel forms reliability is the ability of a test to measure
in the same way as another test designed to measure
the same construct. It is particularly important if the
publishers produces two versions of the same test, since
they should then be highly correlated.

12. Personality tests.
Personality tests do not look like tests as such, they are really
questionnaires. They usually, but not always, take the form of:
 The ‘statement’ type are usually open ended questions to which the
candidate replies ‘true’ or ‘false’ or may have a range of responses
from ‘very much like me’ to ‘not at all like me’, or similar
descriptions. These tests are usually constructed in such a way that
the question will be asked in many different ways on a number of
occasions as a means of gauging a typical answer. In an omnibus
test (full personality) this means the test may cover over a hundred
questions.
 The ‘choice’ type, sometimes called ipsative, is one in which the test
taker is required to make a choice between two statements or
adjectives. Sometimes it is a straight choice, sometimes there is
scale of response. There is some concern about the use of such
tests. To illustrate, if we provide a test taker with a choice ‘I often
beat my spouse and family’ or ‘I often steal from shops or my
employer’ we will be able to deduce from the answer that the test
taker either has violent tendencies or dishonest tendencies. In
practice the respondent could be either violent or dishonest or both
or neither, deducing answers from forced choices is therefore
fraught with difficulties.

13. Personality tests.
 The ‘adjective’ test has become more popular in recent
years, partly because of improvements in its
development and partly because it generally offers a
quicker and more cost effective route to testing. In this
approach test takers are required to respond to an
adjective as ‘like me’ or ‘not like me’ etc or respond to a
choice of adjectives indicating which is most appropriate
for them.