Importance of Psychometrics in Selection Methods

PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS

Psychometric testing is thought to give recruiters an insight into candidate's ways of behaving. Companies are increasingly using psychological testing to identify person's capacity, prosperity and liability to act, react, experience or structure behavior in particular ways. These tests can be divided mainly into two categories:

Ability tests assess the candidate's specific ability at verbal, numerical or abstract reasoning skills and personality assessment gives a more rounded profile of the candidate which cannot be assessed by other methods. Jason Sindall explains that ‘the chosen test has to be relevant for the job in question and it needs to have been professionally developed and proven to be reliable'.

The following are the principle types of psychometric tests used in employment:

1. Ability tests

Such tests are referred to as ‘tests of maximum performance' by psychologists. Such tests ask person to do his or her best on the task and their performance is judged in terms of how well how well they perform. Ability tests also measures aptitude and achievement which gives a brief idea of the individual's capability and validity.

2. Personality questionnaires

These differ from ability tests, as they asses the person's typical way of behaving, thinking, feeling or perceiving in particular situations. An important difference between ability and personality tests is that considerably more skill and judgment is necessary to interpret the results of the latter. Meta-analysis has shown that personality tests have validity coefficients of up to .31 for predicting job performance (Schmidt, F. L. & Hunter, J.E., 1988). Personality tests have