Whether hiring job-seekers, helping existing staff to understand their relationships with co-workers, or trying to figure out what individuals want out of life, assessing “hidden” traits such as personality, intelligence and attitude can be very useful. Thankfully, there is a way in which this can be achieved and that is by using psychometric testing. Psychometric tests are many and can include personality questionnaires, reasoning tests and motivation assessments, all of which endeavour to present objective data for otherwise subjective measurements.
However, since objectivity is the key factor when running such assessments, a good psychometric test must provide impartial and precise results each time it is done. To ensure this, each psychometric test must be reliable and valid:
Reliable
Any type of aptitude test must produce consistent results and not be notably influenced by any outside influences. A good way to illustrate this is by having an individual take a test when they are anxious, and then take the same test again when they are completely relaxed. A reliable test should show two sets of results which are practically identical.
Valid
If an aptitude test does not measure what it is intended to measure then it is not valid. For example, a test which is supposed to measure a person’s motivation must clearly demonstrate that it is actually measuring motivation, and not something else which is merely related to motivation. An invalid test is simply a waste of time.
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Tags: aptitude tests, employer aptitude tests, psychometric testing, psychometric tests