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, cognituve
– Skill, practical
– Ability, learning curve
– Other personal characteristics, attitude and other physical factors
• KSAO’s for each job can be found by job analysis
• Then we look for the KSAO’s in particular
candidates (in job interviews)
• The idea is to select candidates who have the
necessary KSAO’s
Two things to remember

 Are the scores consistent over time

(reliability)?

Is it a true test of the ability? (validity)

Test Characteristics
Group vs. individual
Objective vs. open-ended
◦ Ex- MCQs vs Descriptive q’s
◦ Mcqs are harder to make, easier to check
◦ Descriptive q’s are easier to make, harder to check
Paper and pencil vs. performance
◦ Paper pencil tests are cognitive in nature
◦ Performance tests are skill based, use equipments or tools etc.
Power vs. speed tests
◦ Power tests focus on quality, not time (ex- almost unlimited time to
solve a problem)
◦ Speed tests focus on minimum accuracy but maximum speed. Ex-
500 mcqs in 30 minutes (no negative marking)
Psychological/ Psychometric Test
What is it?
Have you ever attended any tests of such?
What's the purpose?
Psychological/Psychometric Tests

A series of questions that is designed to

assess a particular individual's attitude and
behaviour.
Psychological Test Types
 Ability tests (learning related)
◦ Cognitive ability (mental skill, IQ etc)
◦ Psychomotor ability (hand-eye coordination tests, i.e. basic
skills, nerve test with hammer by doctor)
 Knowledge and skill tests
◦ Knowledge: what one knows
◦ Skill: what one is able to do (complex skills, ex- driving)
 Personality
◦ Personality is a tendency to behave in a particular way
◦ Problems:
 Faking
 Job relevance
Cognitive ability test
Numerical
Verbal
reasoning test
In class exercise: let's find out! (Logical
Reasoning)
Types? (Analytical Ability)
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
Personality tests measure individual's
behavioural style, opinions and motivations

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 regulate emotions
◦ Useful for customer service based positions
Integrity Tests
◦ measures honesty, loyalty and ethics
◦ Overt vs. covert personality tests
Drug testing
◦ Used for safety-sensitive jobs such as pilot, driver
etc.
◦ Many think drug testing invades privacy
Collecting Biographical Information
through Forms
 Biographical inventory
◦ A form that collects life information about a candidate such
as likes, dislikes and preferences (personality profiling)
◦ It is included with the job application form

 Obtains detailed information about a person’s background

  Found to be predictors of job performance

 Ex-Office distance from home. To reduce absenteeism,

we would select candidates who live near.
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
 Unstructured gives more detail and insight.
 Best to use combination
 Ex- Comments section at the end of a MCQ questionnaire
Work Samples
 Simulation of actual job tasks
◦ Ex- for a teacher, take a demo class

 Good predictors of future job performance

 Acceptability by applicants because of obvious job

relevance

 High face validity

Experiential Exercise (20mins)
 https
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GvdAYB
YcUA