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The following are the principle types of psychometric tests used in employment settings:
1. Tests of ability
This category covers what psychologists sometimes refer to as 'tests of maximum performance'. Such tests ask a person to do his or her best on a task and their performance is judged in terms of how well they have done - i.e. normally in terms of how many correct answers they gave. Ability tests are sometimes subdivided in to tests of achievement and tests of aptitude. Tests of achievement are intended to assess a person's present capability and tests of aptitude are intended to assess what a person is likely to be good at some time in the future.
The types of ability assessed in employment settings include:
- general mental abilities such as verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and abstract reasoning
- more specific job-related abilities such as clerical aptitude, mechanical aptitude and spatial reasoning
Most ability tests provide just a single score, indicating how the person has performed on the ability in question in comparison with people who have taken the test previously.
2. Personality questionnaires
Personality questionnaires differ from ability tests in that there are usually no right or wrong answers to the questions. Rather, the purpose of the questionnaire is to assess the person's typical way of behaving, thinking, feeling or perceiving in particular situations.
Usually, personality questionnaires provide not just one but several scores for the person: one score for each 'scale' or 'dimension' of personality being assessed. The overall pattern of scores provides what is called the 'personality profile and it is this which is used as the basis for making interpretations about how the person is likely to behave in different circumstances.
An important difference between ability tests and personality tests is that considerably more skill and judgement is necessary to interpret the results of the latter. This is the point at which the 'science' ends and the judgement begins.
3. Tests of interests, motivation and attitudes
Although not clearly distinguishable from personality tests, there is another group of tests which attempt to assess other more specific aspects of a person's style and approach to life.
Career interest questionnaires for example assess the extent to which a person shows interests in particular work 'themes' or 'areas' (for example, working outdoors, creative work, working with people) and these, in conjunction with ability tests can be used by employment counsellors in offering guidance to individuals on career choice.
Motivation questionnaires attempt to assess what types of motivation are most significant to an individual (e.g. achievement, security, affiliation with others and so on) and these questionnaires are also useful in career planning and employment counselling.
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