The Importance Of Psychometrics

1136 Words5 Pages

Psychometrics was developed to measure psychological abilities, characteristics and attributes of individuals via standardized and statistically valid psychological tests (Buchanan & Finch, 2005). Psychometrics has been fired in the ovens of war and now there is a proliferation in modern business (Craig, 2017). Most early theoretical and applied work in psychometrics was undertaken in an attempt to measure intelligence. Today, psychometric theories are commonly applied in measuring personality, attitudes, beliefs and academic achievements to measure performance and psychological capacity in organisations as well as academic settings (Pandey, 2015). Psychometrics provides a scientific and pragmatic approach that fulfilled the need to rank, categorize …show more content…

Binet and Simon (1905) then proposed the first modern intelligence test which test higher cognitive abilities, which comprises of real abilities and practical judgments. Binet insisted that the scale is not measuring innate intelligence but serves as a screening device for children with special needs (Rose). Yet, many psychologists assumed that the test reflected a general factor in intellectual functioning. By 1908, Goddard translated the first Binet-Simon scale. Terman (1916) then followed and proposed a revised version, the well-known Stanford-Binet Test, which emphasizes on relevant cultural content and documents the score profiles of various age groups of American children. The test was then revised and administered to 1.75 million U. S. army recruits by Yerkes (1876-1956) which resulted in the first large-scale deployment of group testing due to World War I as Yerkes suggested that psychology can aid the war by calssifying recuits into armed forces in terms of intellectual level (Hergenhahn, 2010). Wechsler (1896-1981) discovered that intelligence tested by using Alpha test was not applicable to everyday life. He then proposed Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (WBIS) in 1938 which is then became widely used in the United States by taking Stern’s (1912) Psychological Methods of Intelligence Measurement which led to Intelligence Quotient (IQ) into account. He then developed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) (1949), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) (1955), and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI)

Open Document