Psychometric Testing

By Shahed

Psychometric testing refers to the field of study concerning educational and psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of personality traits, abilities, attitudes, and knowledge. The field revolves around the construction of instruments and procedures and the improvement of theoretical approaches to measurement. Measurement instruments include tests and questionnaires, and most psychometric tests assess cognitive ability or test personality. Some popular examples include the Stanford-Binet IQ test, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Psychometric testing has often been designed to select and recruit individuals. In terms of employment, research shows that job performance relates strongly to high cognitive ability. Personality tests have been used to see if a candidate is a good match for the organization. These types of tests assess for factors such as extraversion, introversion, reliability, motivation, and so forth. According to a recent poll, over 90% of employers use some sort of psychometric testing to recruit employees. In education, psychometric testing is frequently used as part of student assessment. In fact, IQ tests are used along with other measures to determine whether a student needs special education or should be placed in the gifted/talented program.
Since psychometric testing plays an important part in the selection and recruitment of employees and a crucial role in student placement, it’s natural to question the accuracy of these tools. Three things to look for are reliability, validity, and test standardization. Reliability means that the test provides consistent results over repeated tests. Validity refers to whether the test measures what it was intended to measure. Test standardization ensures that the conditions are as similar as possible for all individuals taking the test.
To ensure reliability and test standardization, individuals giving out psychometric tests need to be properly trained. Organizations, especially larger ones, train human resources departments to use these types of measurements for recruitment. In education, school psychologists are the ones who receive extensive training in using IQ tests. I am now being trained through Rowan to give out IQ test to students. I find it difficult to provide reliable results and consistent test environments for all students. This will improve in time, but I think regardless of the administrator’s experience, there will continue to be some degree of error. In terms of validity, some factors that affect it include social desirability and culture bias. Social desirability has been identified as the tendency for individuals to alter their answers to impress management or the tendency to alter answers to simply present themselves in a more positive way. In terms of culture, there has been extensive research addressing whether questions on the IQ tests are culturally-bias.
I believe psychometric testing should be used with caution. I consider it a quick, helpful tool in selection and recruitment. You can use a computer to score the test and a formal interview process may not even be needed as a result. I also believe that it provides less bias in the selection process. In fact, the administrator judges the employees’ cognitive ability and personality through a standardized test without using his own judgment. School psychologists use the IQ test to assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses. I don’t believe that an IQ test should be the single measurement used to determine a child’s ability. In other words, a child should not be placed in a specific curriculum based on one score on one test. However, I do think that it provides an unbiased tool for assessment. Teacher and parental observations are used to determine a child’s strengths and weaknesses – a psychometric test prevents personal bias in the assessment process.