Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Assessment Methods For Selection & Placement

 Job-Related Characteristics
• Many different characteristics of people are
needed for a job (KSAO’s)
– Knowledge
– Skill
– Ability
– Other personal characteristics
• KSAO’s for each job determined by a job analysis
Two things to remember

 Does testing make sense?

what it is you want to assess/ What do

you want to measure out of this test?
Psychological/ Psychometric Test
What is it?
Have you ever attended any tests of such?
What's the purpose?
Psychological/ Psychometric Test
A series of questions that is designed to
assess a particular individual's attidue and
behaviour.
Psychological Test Characteristics

Group vs. individual

Objective vs. open-ended
Paper and pencil vs. performance
Power vs. speed
Psychological Test Types
 Ability tests
◦ Cognitive ability
◦ Psychomotor ability
 Knowledge and skill tests
◦ Knowledge: what one knows
◦ Skill: what one is able to do
 Personality
◦ Personality is a predisposition to behave in a particular way
◦ Problems:
 Faking
 Job relevance
Cognitive ability test
Numerical
Verbal
reasoning test
In class exercise: let's find out!
Types?
Some more ability tests
Abstract/ logical reasonings
◦ capable of quickly analysing new information,
integrating it to the overall scheme of things,
and applying it to solve work-related problems

◦ capable of processing and analysing new

work-related data in a logical manner
Mechanical reasonings
Example of a Psychomotor Ability Test
Psychological Test:
What could it be?
Personality test
Personalitytests measure individual's
behavioural style, opinions and
motivatons

Personality tests also measure personal

attributes such as temperament, career
interests and personal values.
Often measures the big five factors of
personality!
More Test Types
Emotional Intelligence
◦ Ability to control and recognize emotions
◦ Trait vs. information processing
Integrity
◦ Predict whether person will engage in
dishonest behaviors
◦ Overt vs. personality
Drug testing
Biographical Information
 Biographical inventory
 
 Detailed information about a person’s background

  Empirical vs. rational

  Predictive of job performance

Interviews
 Used in almost every hiring situation
  Relates to cognitive ability (Huffcutt et al., 1996)
  Structured vs. unstructured
  Structured much more valid in predicting performance
Work Samples
 Simulation of actual job tasks

 Good predictors of future job performance

 Acceptability by applicants because of obvious job

relevance

 High face validity