Psychometric Tests

What is a psychometric test?

Aim to measure aspects of your mental ability, aptitude or your personality Used as part of the recruitment or selection process Provide employers with a method of selecting the most suitable job applicants or candidates for promotion Used by 80% of Fortune 500 and 75% of Times Top 100 companies

What do psychometric tests measure?

How well you work with other people How well you handle stress Whether you will be able to cope with the intellectual demands of the job Your personality, preferences and abilities Most do not analyze your emotional or psychological stability Best match of individual to occupation and working environment

What types of test are there?

What are they used for?

Psychometric tests

Selection & Recruitment

Career Progression

A psychometric test should be:

Objective:
The score must not affected by the testers' beliefs or values

Standardized:
Must be administered under controlled conditions

Reliable:
Must minimize and quantify any intrinsic errors

Predictive:
Must make an accurate prediction of performance

Non Discriminatory:
Must not disadvantage any group on the basis of gender, culture, ethnicity, etc.

Some of the popular psychometric tests are:

16 PF MBTI OPQ32 Thomas Personal Profiling System Gordons Personal Profile Inventory Rorschach Ink-Blot Test FIRO-B Picture Frustration Test Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT)

The Five Factors Model

Basis of many tests: Uses five personality traits: Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism

Five Factor Scoring:

-ve Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousn ess Neuroticism Openness to experience +ve

FIRO-B:
FUNDAMENTAL INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP ORIENTATIONBEHAVIOUR

Devised by American psychologist, Will Schutz, in the 1950's Helps people to understand themselves and their relationships with others Based on a 2-hour, 54-question questionnaire Describes interpersonal behavior in terms of three primary dimensions: 1. Need for Inclusion 2. Need for Control 3. Need for Affection

FIRO-B is used for:

Team building and team development Individual development and executive coaching Conflict resolution Selection and placement Management and leadership development Relationship counseling

MBTI: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Based on theories of Gustav Jung Most widely-used questionnaire based test Uses four bi-polar dimensions
Sensing Intuition (SN) Thinking Feeling (TF) Extraversion-Introversion (E-I) Judging-Perceiving (J-P)

To create 16 Personality Types

MBTI is used for:

Individual development Management and leadership development Team building and development Organizational change Improving communication Education and career counseling Relationship counseling

The DISC Personality Model

Direct, Influencing, Steady and Compliant behaviors.

Developed in 1920s to understand why people do what they do Simple questionnaire based Uses four categories of human behavioral styles
"D" for Dominance-Drive-Direct, "I" for Influence "S" for Steadiness or Stability "C" for Compliant, Conscientious, or Cautious

The DISC Four Quadrant Model

DISC is used for:

As a learning tool For career development Training, coaching and mentoring Organisational development and performance

16 Personality Factor model (16PF)

Developed in the 1940s and refined in the 60s Attempts to define the basic underlying personality Questionnaire based Analysis using 16 personality factors

Factor A B C E F G H I L M N Warmth Reasoning Emotional Stability Dominance Liveliness

Descriptors Reserved Less Intelligent Affected by feelings Humble Sober Expedient Shy Tough-minded Trusting Practical Straightforward Outgoing More Intelligent Emotionally stable Assertive Happy-go-lucky Conscientious Venturesome Tender-minded Suspicious Imaginative Shrewd

Rule Consciousness
Social Boldness Sensitivity Vigilance Abstractedness Privateness

The 16 factors with their word descriptors of each scale

O
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Apprehension
Openness to Change Self-Reliance Perfectionism Tension

Self-Assured
Conservative Groupdependent Self-conflict Relaxed

Apprehensive
Experimenting Self-sufficient Self-control Tense

16 PF is used for:
Selection Development Executive coaching Teambuilding

Johari Window
Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 Used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships subject chooses 5 or 6 is out of a list of 55 adjectives Peers of the subject are then pick 5 or 6 adjectives which they think describe the subject

Each adjective is placed in one of four quadrants

Team members and leaders should strive to increase their open free areas, and to reduce their blind, hidden and unknown areas.

BELBIN TEAM ROLE INVENTORY

Used to place individuals in their most effective team roles Categorises team roles under three orientations:
Action-oriented roles People-oriented roles Cerebral roles

The 9 Belbin Team Roles

Co-coordinator Resource Investigator
Company Worker/ Implementer

Team Worker

Shaper

Completer/ finisher

Plant

Monitor/ Evaluator

Specialist

Belbin team profiling is used to:

Create balanced working teams:
One Co-coordinator or Shaper (not both) for leader A Plant to stimulate ideas A Monitor/Evaluator to maintain honesty and clarity One or more Implementer, Team worker, Resource investigator or Completer/finisher to make things happen

Dr. Meredith Belbin:

"Nobody is perfect - but a team can be"

Aptitude and Ability Tests

Designed to assess ones logical reasoning or thinking performance Usually consist of multiple choice questions, administered under exam conditions Typical test might allow 30 minutes for 30 or so questions At least 5000 aptitude and ability tests on the market On-line testing increasingly popular

Types of aptitude and ability tests

For more information:

BOOKS Anastasi Anne, Urbina Susana, Psychological Testing, Pearson Education, 2003. Mcshane S, Glinow A M, Sharma R, Introduction to Organization Behavior, Tata McGraw Hills, 2006. E-Books D.Constantine-Simms, Everything you need to know to pass psychometric tests. Magazines HRM Review February 2007 Websites http://www.teamfocus.co.uk/different_types_of_psychometric_tests.htm http://changingminds.org/disciplines/hr/selection/psychometric.htm http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html http://en.wikipedia.org www.humanmetrics.com http://www.opp.co.uk