Arshita Matta

A015116720011

IMA-2 (2020-2024)

Q1. Delineate the history of psychometric testing and elucidate how the discipline
has advanced over the years.

Ans1. From the dawn of human history

Psychometric tests are found throughout human history, appearing across

cultures and religions. In ancient China, candidates were required to take
examinations in order to obtain prized occupations which involved the need to be
competent in areas such as fiscal policies, revenue, agriculture, military, and law
as well as tests that determined physical capability of potential soldiers.

Early forms of psychometric tests were not easy. Rather, they were a test of skill
and intelligence, as well as endurance. An early psychometric test required the
candidate to attend testing for a full day and night – imagine that next time you
are taking a not-so-simple assessment spanning a couple of hours! To make
matters worse, these tests were so challenging that they had a pass rate of little
more than 7%. You could almost say these psychometric tests were not just about
assessing competency; they were about pushing candidates to their limits to find
the absolute best.

While it may seem like it would be ideal to be in that 7%, unfortunately being at
that elite level did not mean the candidate was successful. Rather, it meant they
moved on to the final round of psychometric testing, which had a pass rate of
about 3%. The lucky few that achieved this entered the much sought after public
official roles. This procedure was eliminated in 1906, and a fairer but still difficult
test was chosen in its place, but this type of testing still exists today in modern
China, as well as other nearby countries such as the Republic of South Korea.

Although we have evidence of psychometric-type tests coming from ancient

sources, researchers agree that the first true psychometric test, in terms of how
we identify it today, was developed by Francis Galton, who in the 1880s created a
framework of tests to gauge participants’ intelligence based on an examination of
their sensory and motor skills. In fact, it was Francis Galton who created the term
“psychometric” and his work in developing this efficient sensory and motor skill
psychometric test went on to influence noted psychologist Dr. James Cattell, who
is renowned for developing psychometric tests further at that time than they had
ever been before, when Galton’s work was criticized as not being very useful
when it came to predicting educational outcomes.

Toward modern psychometric testing

The modern type of psychometric test we know today has roots in France in the
19th century and was devised to allow physicians to identify and separate patients
with mental deficiencies and those experiencing mental illness.

Three renowned psychologists, Alfred Binet, Victor Henri, and Theodore Simon,
got together to work on developing a psychometric test that could identify young
children affected by mental deficiencies. It took them 15 years to develop their
groundbreaking assessment tool, which looked at participants’ verbal skills and
then assessed their level of mental capacity. Referred to as “mental retardation”
in their day, the test became known as the Binet-Simon test, and remarkably, is
still in use today.

Now known as the Stanford-Binet test, it is in its fifth edition, having been
updated and released in 2003 in conjunction with Stanford researcher Lewis M.
Terman to address the challenges of diagnosing children in the modern era.
Terman used the original Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale, but removed
problematic cultural assumptions, such as a task which required the child to select
the “prettiest looking” person, which could clearly be affected by cultural bias.
With significant revision, but based on the heart of the original work, the resulting
test is now able to identify developmental deficiencies as well as intellectual
challenges.

Psychometric testing today

Most employers make use of psychometric testing to ensure they are selecting
candidates with the right mix of skills, knowledge, and capabilities as well as the
capacity to learn more on the job, adapt to changes instantaneously, and the
ability to function well in the face of stress – which most workers deal with as
roles become much more demanding.

The psychometric test industry has evolved to suit the needs of the employer,
who is faced with increasing numbers of applications as well as a desire to assess
all candidates objectively. So instead of just facing a personality or intelligence
test, candidates may be asked to take an aptitude test covering cognitive skill, an
IQ test, or another test that assesses aptitude in general rather than knowledge or
an established skill set.

Employers can choose to administer an aptitude test alone, or combine it with an

ability test which assesses the candidates’ learned knowledge and skills – this
could be a punctuation test, a word processing test, or an Excel test. Finally, some
employers still choose to use personality tests, which can actually be a good thing
for you as a candidate as it helps you determine which environment is right for
you. Remember, a job interview is a good time to see whether you want to work
in the environment the potential employer offers, so don’t hesitate to use the
insight you receive about your skills and tendencies to make a choice that is a
good fit for you.