Psychometric Test
Psychometric tests are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in large
organizations, where senior management may be removed from the
recruitment process but seeks to ensure certain benchmarks are met
when recruiting new employees. The psychometric tests are the formal
structured exercises designed by the psychologists to measure the
qualities like reasoning abilities and personality factors. These tests are
researched and tested to ensure the fairness reliability and validity of the
tests. The tests are administered and standardised. These tests are
commonly used for recruitment in any organisation. It gives details about
the skill set and personality possessed by the candidate. The
psychometric tests are broadly classified in two types:
Aptitude or ability test
Personality Assessment
Aptitude Tests
These tests are designed to examine the candidate for logical reasoning or
thinking. It helps in measuring the competence and capabilities as well as
analytical reasoning of the candidate. The parameters of analysis are:
1. Verbal Reasoning: It is the critical evaluation of written
information and reading comprehension. Alternatively, it may
include fill in the blank spaces with the given choice of word.
2. Numerical reasoning: It includes logical interpretation of
numerical and statistical information. These tests are in different
formats.
3. Abstract reasoning: It includes pattern recognition, logic and how
quickly the candidate learns and master new task.
Aptitude tests are administered under examination conditions and are
strictly timed. You are normally asked to select the correct answer from
a range of alternatives. Do not worry if you cannot complete all the
questions in the time allowed (few people do so). What counts is the
number of questions you get right, so work as quickly and accurately
as you can. Your score is compared with a norm group such as
students/graduates who have taken the test before. This allows
selectors to assess your reasoning skills in relation to others and to
make judgements about your ability to cope with tasks involved in the
job applied for. Tests are often used alongside other selection methods,
either as part of an assessment centre or at the same time as the initial
interview. In this case, it is your overall performance which is important
and the test scores do not carry more weight than any other element of
the process. However, sometimes tests are used prior to a first
interview and a fixed minimum score will be required in order to get to
the next stage.
Personality Test
Personality test is designed to explore the ways in which candidate
typically react to and deal with different situations. They are not tests as
such because there is no right or wrong answers and they are not
timed. The questions focus on factors such as how candidate relate to
other people, work style, ability to deal with your own emotions and those
of others, your motivation and determination and your general outlook.
Selectors do not look for any specific personality profile for a job, but
some characteristics will be more appropriate for particular jobs (e.g.
social confidence and independence are important for sales). Personality
measurements provide only a guide to your true personality and are used
only as supplementary information. Candidate may be given feedback on
the profile resulting from your answers or occasionally this may form the
basis for a subsequent interview. The best way to approach these
questionnaires is to answer in an honest and straightforward manner.
Guessing what the employer is looking for could be counterproductive after all, you do not want to be given a job which does not suit you.
These will look at areas such as:
Ways of thinking, feeling and acting in different situations;
Interpersonal style, conflict style, leadership style;
Patterns of coping with stress;
Interests - how much do you like carrying out various types of
activities at work;
Motivations the energy with which you approach your work and
the different conditions which increase or decrease your motivation;
and
Work values what factors make work worthwhile for you.
In recruitment, are often used to see if you would suit a particular work
environment and can be used to assess aspects of your individual
behaviour, attitudes and opinions, as well as your motivation, interests
and values. The results may then be compared to the characteristics
considered essential for the job on offer. They are usually paper-based
questionnaires where a profile is drawn from your responses to a number
of questions or statements, focussing on a variety of personality factors.
Another type of personality questionnaire involves exploring your interests
and values and these are designed to help you clarify what fields of work
interest you and are not normally used for selection purposes. They can,
however, provide a useful starting point for people who are unsure about
the type of work they might want to do.
Majorly used psychometric tests are:
MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The MBTI Manual states that the indicator "is designed to implement a
theory; therefore the theory must be understood to understand the
MBTI". Fundamental to the MBTI is the theory of psychological type as
originally developed by Carl Jung. Jung proposed the existence of two
dichotomous pairs of cognitive functions:
The "rational" (judging) functions: thinking and feeling
The "irrational" (perceiving) functions: sensation and intuition
Jung believed that for every person each of the functions is expressed
primarily in either an introverted or extraverted form. Based on Jung's
original concepts, Briggs and Myers developed their own theory of
psychological type, described below, on which the MBTI is based.
However, although psychologist Hans Eysenck called the MBTI a
moderately successful quantification of Jung's original principles as
outlined in Psychological Types. Eysenck also said that "[The MBTI] creates
16 personality types which are said to be similar to Jung's theoretical
concepts. I have always found difficulties with this identification, which
omits one half of Jung's theory (he had 32 types, by asserting that for
every conscious combination of traits there was an opposite unconscious
one). Obviously the latter half of his theory does not admit of
questionnaire measurement, but to leave it out and pretend that the
scales measure Jungian concepts is hardly fair to Jung." In any event, both
models remain hypothetical, with no controlled scientific studies
supporting either Jung's original concept of type or the MyersBriggs
variation.
Enneagram
The Enneagram is a personality typing system that consists of nine
different types. Everyone is considered to be one single type, although
one can have traits belonging to other ones. While it's uncertain whether
this type is genetically determined, many believe it is already in place at
birth.
The nine types (or "enneatypes", "ennea" means "nine") are universally
identified by the numbers 1 to 9. These numbers have a standard way of
being placed around the Enneagram symbol. Enneagram authors have
attached their own individual names to these numbers. On this site the
type names by authors Riso and Hudson are used. They are:
People of a particular type have several characteristics in common, but
they can be quite different nevertheless. It depends among other things
on their level of mental health. Unhealthy (neurotic) people from a
particular type can look quite different from healthy ones. Riso and
Hudson distinguish 9 levels of mental health (see their book Personality
Types) and have type descriptions for each level of each enneagram type.
