Psychometric Tests Essay

IntroductionPsychometric tastes demonstr fitting quickly during the 1980s and 1990s and nowadays, it is genuinely commonly physical exercised by many a(prenominal) presidencys for making decisions on pickaxe and advancement. In the UK, ab come on 75% of medium to deep sized organizations mapping them as trigger off of their selection procedure a broadside interviews or opposite face-to-face assessment techniques. (Website http//www.morrisby.com/faq/faq_answer.asp?ID=11 Accessed 30/11/2005) The psychometric ravels be a useful tool for misgiving more(prenominal) ab turn up the trickdidates, and finding pop disclose their aptitude and mortalality to support the government activity making screamion about the psyches behaviour or convey transaction in the future.Types of psychometric testsA key feature of any psychometric tests is that they comport to fulfil two wiz criteria in use reli talent, ie, tests must win consistent results when measuring the same cha racteristics, or factors, on two or more occasions, usually on a test-retest soil validity, i.e they must be able to beatnik what they claim to mea trusted. (G A Cole, Organisational Behaviour, 1995, Continuum) The psychometric tests come into two types* Aptitude tests Measure a individuals potential preferably than agniseledge and how well they can call for refreshing skills to cope with the art. The tests aroundly digest on the somebodys numerical, verbal, non-verbal and spacial top executive. It is unalike to the improvement tests because it c bes to portend the exploit of the person, whereas the attainment tests focus on the persons movement in the past. However, thither is a link between the attainment tests and ability tests because what the person has achieved depends on his/her ability.* nature questionnaires Focus on the persons constitution, values, interests, etc. The tests look at finding out and analysing the ways in which nation film with thi ngs, their attitude and how they will behave in different situations. The tests normally dont have a time limit, and there is no skillful or unseasonable answers.Back to 400 BC, Hippocrates from Greece was the first theoriser to measure the differences between singulars character. He believed that individuals reputation or genius were determined by their bodily fluids or humours, i.e. yellow bile choleric aggressive, excitable, irritable. other type theory was developed by William Sheldon (1898-1970,) he believed that the temperament of quite a little were related to to their physique, i.e. the ectomorph type, people who ar thin, shy, creative and intelligent, the mesomorph type, which are people who are strong, active, brave and assertive, and the endomorpht type, people who are fat, sociable and easy going. some(prenominal) other example of type theory was created by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung he foc utilise on how people presuppose. He created eight psych ological types, tetrad Extraverted (E) attitudes plus four Introverted (I) attitudes combine with either thinking (T) or feeling (F), and either signal detection (S) or intuition (N) EST, ESF, ENT, ENF, IST, ISF, INT and INF. His become was subsequent developed by two generations of the Myers-Briggs family, which the MBTI test use one side or other of all four of Jungs, manifest a four-letter code to set up sixteen types of character. In addition, one of the or so famous trait theories was created by Hans Jrgen Eysenck (1997 1990) and the Sixteen temper Factor Questionnaire (16PF) created by R.B. Cattell, its one of the crush-known personality measures, in any case one of the most frequently used in the selection process.The use and effectiveness of psychometric testsOrganisations spend very much of money and time on selection and all they want is the right person for the right business organization enterprise, an employee who has the ability, enjoys doing the concern , and will provide a good level of performance, and benefit the organisation as a result. In other words, the tests help the organisations to save money and time, because at one time they have got the right person for the antic, they top executive non need to go done the recruitment process again.During the interview process, sometimes applicants efficiency lie about their achievement and ability, or horizontal create a false good impression to augment their chance of get the job. With the help of the psychometric tests, the organisation will be able to introduce decisions about people more effective and accurately because the information they attain from the tests are reliable, and also enable them to predict the ability and the performance of the candidate. Recent meta-analysis studies have consistently demonstrated that cognitive ability testing accurately predicts future job performance across almost all operational areas. (John Arnold, Work Psychology, fourth editio n, 2005, Pearson nurture Limited)An example of the use of a psychometric test during the selection process could involve a potential sales manager, and perchance testing them for their numerical ability, verbal cogitate powers and for analysing their personality, enabling the company to see how he/she deals things, behaves towards the staff or reacts in different situations. Using a psychometric test during the selection process would also help an organisation to conduce feedback to those who wandered to get the job the feedback is accurate and straight forward, helping the applicants to trace their strengths and weaknesses, so they know what kind of job is suitable for them and to help self-development.During the training and promotion processes, the tests are also useful as they help to constitute whether the employees need training and assistance in improving their skills in particular proposition areas. During the promotion process, the organisation power use the persona lity questionnaires to find out which candidates personality is most suitable to promote to a higher(prenominal) level. Some organisations might even use the results of a psychometric test to stumble someone redundant. I personally think that it is non fair because the tests should be seen as additional information, and also the personality does not fully reverberate the productivity of the employee.confinement of the testsFirst of all, it may be dear(p) and time-consuming for the organisations to produce the tests because the materials required can be expensive, big organisations may even employ a psychologist to design particular(prenominal) tests and it will therefore increase their costs. Examples such as personality tests are tall(prenominal) to manage and interpret results, and therefore specific experts are needed.Secondly, the applicants can fake their reply in the personality tests as it increases their chances of getting the job, as they might attempt to give the answers to which the organisation is looking for. It can be described as social pizzazz and it contains two fundamentals, self-deception and impression commission (Paulhaus, 1989). Self-deception refers to applicants being overly positive in their perceptions of positive personality features season simultaneously trying to play mountain their perceived negative aspects. Impression counselling is more concerned with applicants trying to out nice because they fear social disapproval. (Dominic make and Ivan T. Robertson, The Psychology of Personnel Selection, 1995, Routledge). Its also required to take into account that sometimes applicants might be nervous when they are taking the tests, and that it might have an regulate on the answers they are giving.For the aptitude and ability tests, some jobs might require multi-skilled applicants who do not have all of the abilities, this does not mean that they cannot perform well, solely their performance would also depend on many oth er factors, i.e. companys policies, procedures and structure, luck, squad working, appraisal formation, etc. It is hard to predict the performance of an individual when sometimes people rotate their duty or positions, clean-cut to one of the methods of motivation.The purpose of the aptitude and personality tests are to predict an individuals performance, personality and behaviour, specifically when the individuals receive new information and obtain new experiences, i.e. If a special event or melodramatic depart in life were to occur, their attitudes would change and it can therefore influence their performance. other strong argued point against aptitude and personality tests would be, for example, an employee who performs well but has a hurtful personality he/she could be unfriendly, antisocial and may not like to work as part of a team, but overall his/her performance could be the best within the department.The question is, is he/she truly the most suitable person for the job? From the business view, he/she is definitely the right person for the job as long as he/she helps to achieve the business targets. However, the use of the personality tests would become useless, and fail to take into account their performance efficacy in this situation because it clearly proves that his/her personality does not reflect their performance. In addition, the tests might be unfair to applicants whose first terminology is not English, even though some tests might require a received amount of education, i.e. vocabulary, but also it would be unfair to applicants who have different cultures, or come from a different background, because they might have different beliefs, opinions and values on different things or react differently to similar situations.ConclusionI personally think that the aptitude and ability tests are really useful for organisations, as it helps them to make decisions during their selection and promotion stages. It is reliable and accurate, helps t o identify the ability of the applicants and predicts their performance. However, there are lashings of factors that could create an influence on the individuals life, which would right off or indirectly affect their performance.The personality questionnaire can be accurate if the person answers honestly to the questions, it can help them to know more about themselves and find out what type of person they are. However, I advise that the personality questionnaire should not be used within workplace because I strongly believe that personality does not reflect the productivity of the person.Finally, I think it is serious for organisations not to rely on these tests because they cannot be 100% accurate, and that they should set out a good selection procedure, making sure they are providing a good feedback system to the applicants, and make sure discriminations do not take place during the selection process.Bibliography information listG A Cole, (1995), Organisational Behaviour, Con tinuumLaurie. J Mullins, (2005), Management and organisational behaviour, 7th Edition, assimilator Hall.Andrzej Huczynski and David Buchanan, (2001), organizational Behaviour An Introductory Text, 4th Edition, Prentice HallJohn Arnold, (2005), Work Psychology, 4th Edition, Prentice HallChristoper Lewis, (1992), Employee Selection, 2nd Edition, Stanley ThornesDominic make and Ivan T. Robertson, (1995), The Psychology of Personnel Selection, RoutledgeWebsite http//www.lboro.ac.uk/service/careers/ particle/apps_ints/apps_psyc.htmlWHAT Accessed 30 November 2005http//www.psychometricadvantage.co.uk/personalityprofiling.html Accessed 28 November 2005http//www.cosmiccoaching.com/articles/psycho.htm Accessed 28 November 2005http//www.morrisby.com/test_takers_guide/psychometrics.asp8 Accessed 28 November 2005