EMPLOYEE SELECTION 2: PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST are the important technique in selecting personnel, and this is widespread at all
levels and periods of life.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST is a measuring device, a yardstick applied in consistent and systematic fashion to measure
a sample of behavior.
PURPOSES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST

1. SELECTION, the emphasis is on finding a person with the right qualifications for a particular job.
2. PLACEMENT, the emphasis is on the individual. The problem is to find the right kind of job for a particular
person.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

1. STANDARDIZATION refers to the consistency or uniformity of the conditions and procedures for
administering a test.
2. OBJECTIVITY, as a characteristic of psychological tests, refers primarily to the scoring of the test is liable
to misinterpretation because of scorers attitude, prejudices, or momentary mood.
3. NORMS refers specifically to the average or typical performance on the test: this does not imply a level of
normal or desirable behavior as we might use the term in everyday conversation.
4. RELIABILITY refers to the consistency of response on a test. There are several methods for determining
reliability:
a. TEST RETEST METHOD involves administering a test twice to the same group of people and
correlating the two sets of scores. The closer the correlation coefficient (called the reliability
coefficient in this case) approaches a perfect positive correlation (+1.00), the more reliable is the
test.
b. EQUIVALENT-FORMS METHOD uses a test-retest approach. Instead of taking the same test a
second time, a similar form of the test is given, and the two sets of scores are correlated.
c. SPLIT-HALVES METHOD. The test is taken once, divided in half, and the two sets of items are
correlated with each other.
5. VALIDITY one of the most important requirements of any psychological test is that it measures accurately
what it is intended to measure.

TWO TYPES OF VALIDITY:

a. CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY is determined by the methods of predictive validity and
concurrent validity.
PREDICTIVE VALIDITY involves giving the test to all job applicants in a specific time period
and then hiring them all regardless of their performance on the test,
CONCURRENT VALIDITY involves giving the test to employees already on the job and then
correlating test scores with job performance.
B. RATIONAL VALIDITY is established-by the concept of face validity how valid or relevant the test
appears to the person taking it.
TWO APPROACHES IN ESTABLISHING RATIONAL VALIDITY OF A TEST:
a. CONTENT VALIDITY involves an attempt to assess the content of a test to assure that it includes
a representative sample of all the questions that could be asked.
b. CONSTRUCT VALIDITY is an attempt to determine the psychological characteristics measured
by a test.
c. FACE VALIDITY, concerned appears to be related to the job for which the person is being tested.
6. VALIDITY GENERARALIZATION. The other idea of differential validity is now being replaced
by validity generalization. On the basis of large-scale analysis of hundreds of previous validity studies (an approach
known as meta-analysis) psychologists have concluded that tests that are valid in one situation are also valid in other
situation.

A NUMBER OF STEPS ARE REQUIRED TO ESTABLISHED A TESTING PROGRAM:

1. Conducting a job and workers analysis
2. Finding or developing a suitable tests
3. Conducting an item analysis of each question on a test
4. Determining the level of difficulty of each question
5. Establishing the reliability and validity of the test
6. Setting the cut-off scores

TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS: ADMINISTRATION

1. INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP TEST. Individual test, administered to one person at a time, are more costly
and therefore, are used to lesser degree in industry than a group test.
2. SPEED AND POWER TEST
SPEED TEST has a fixed time limit at which point everyone taking the test must stop.
POWER TEST has no time limit, examines are allowed as much time as they feel they need to finish the test.
3. PAPER-AND-PENCIL AND PERFORMANCE TEST
PAPER-AND-PENCIL TESTS are the kind of test wherein questions are in printed form and the answers are
recorded on an answer sheet.
PERFORMANCE TESTS may take longer to administer than paper-and-pencil tests and also may require an
individual testing operation.

4. OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE SCORING

OBJECTIVITY is the majority of the test used for industrial selection purposes are objective.
SUBJECTIVITY in test scoring, as in interviewing, allows personal prejudices and attributes to
enter into the testing situation. This can lead to distortion of the evaluation.

TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS: BEHAVIORAL MEASURE

1. COGNITIVE ABILITY (better known as intelligence tests) are used in individual selection. Intelligence test
items relate mostly to educational material such as spelling, reading, or mathematics.
2. INTERESTS
Interest inventories are of greater value in vocational guidance and counseling than in industrial personnel
selection.
3. APTITUDES
APTITUDE TESTS must be created especially to measure the skills required by that job, but there are
published tests that measure general aptitudes for mechanical and clerical skills.
4. MOTOR ABILITY. Many jobs in industry and the military require a high degree of motor skill involving
muscular coordination, finger dexterity, or precise eye hand coordination.

The MacQuarrie Test for mechanical ability is one of the few tests of motor ability in paper-and-pencil form. The seven
subsets include:

1. TRACING- a line is drawn through very small openings in a number of vertical lines.
2. TAPPING- dots are made on paper as quickly as possible.
3. DOTTING- dots are made in circles as quickly as possible.
4. COPYING-simple designs are copied.
5. LOCATION- specific points must be located in smaller size version of a stimulus figure.
6. BLOCKS- the number of blocks in a drawing must be determined.
7. PURSUIT- the visual tracing of assorted lines in a maze.

7. PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES
PROJECTIVE TESTS of personality were developed primarily for use in clinical psychology for work with
emotionally distributed individuals.

ADVANTAGES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

Tests can aid the selection process (assuming thorough development research), they are objective measures, and their
effectiveness is easier to evaluate than some other selection devices. There are no alternative better than tests in terms
of high validity and lack adverse impact.

LIMITATIONS AND DANGERS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

The limitations and dangers of psychological testing include uncritical use, unfair rejections of applicants, faking of test
responses, conformity and poor quality of test administration. In recent years, the public has become more critical of
test and there are serious issues involved in their use as selection devices, including invasion of privacy and the
confidentiality of test questions and answers.