Psychological Testing Case Study

1.How is psychological testing used in organizations? What should one look for in a psychological test?
Common types of psychometric assessment
Common forms of psychometric assessments include Cognitive Ability Tests and Personality Questionnaires.
• Cognitive ability tests are deemed particularly useful when trying to predict an individual’s future level of performance in a particular role. They can include:
• Verbal reasoning tests: Measure basic vocabulary, verbal fluency and the ability to reason using words.
• Numerical reasoning tests: Measure the ability to use numbers in a logical and efficient way.
• Abstract reasoning tests: Assess the ability to understand new logical problems and use information outside the range of previous experience

When a test is administered, the outcome is an observed score on the quality measured by the test. However, all measurement procedures physical as well as psychological are subject to some degree of error. In order to know how much weight to place on the observed score, you need to know how accurate the test is as a measuring device. Measures of test reliability allow us to estimate that accuracy. This is a key characteristic of psychometric testing and what makes it so much more valuable than other forms of measurement: For a psychometric test, we can quantify the degree of accuracy of the scores we obtain. Being able to quantify measurement error has important consequences for how we use tests. For example, if you are carrying out an in-depth individual assessment of a person, on the basis of which you will be making some important decision, then you need a high degree of accuracy in your measurement. On the other hand if you are using a test to sort people into one of two groups, and you are not concerned too much about making a few errors in this process, then the reliability of the test can be less. In general, reliability can be increased by making tests longer, and is decreased by shortening them. However, for a given test length, reliability will depend a lot on how well the test has been designed and developed. Reliability is one of the most important topics in training in test use. Test users

It is insufficient to merely state that a test is a measure of, say, mechanical aptitude, tolerance of stress, or proficiency in mathematics. Statements like these must be supported by research that demonstrates a test score is a meaningful measure of the quality or qualities the test was designed to assess. Like reliability, the understanding the concept of validity is critical to competent test use. A test is not simply either valid or not. Test manuals will contain reports of research relating to various aspects of what the test is designed to measure. These studies will never prove the tests validity, once and for all, because validity is contextual. A test can be valid for one application but completely irrelevant for another. The studies reported in the test manual should support the claims that are made about the tests and its use, and provide the basis on which the test user can make inferences about people’s behaviour and predictions about the future