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• Gordon’s 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 +ve

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism

Openness to experience

FIRO-B:

• 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

FUNDAMENTAL INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP ORIENTATION-BEHAVIOUR

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

• 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

Direct, Influencing, Steady and Compliant behaviors.

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 Descriptors

A Warmth Reserved Outgoing

B Reasoning Less Intelligent More Intelligent

C Emotional StabilityAffected by

feelingsEmotionally stable

E Dominance Humble Assertive

F Liveliness Sober Happy-go-lucky

GRule Consciousness

Expedient Conscientious

H Social Boldness Shy Venturesome

I Sensitivity Tough-minded Tender-minded

L Vigilance Trusting Suspicious

M Abstractedness Practical Imaginative

N Privateness Straightforward Shrewd

O Apprehension Self-Assured Apprehensive

Q1Openness to Change

Conservative Experimenting

Q2 Self-RelianceGroup-

dependentSelf-sufficient

Q3 Perfectionism Self-conflict Self-control

Q4 Tension Relaxed Tense

The 16 factors with their word descriptors of each scale

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-coordinatorResource Investigator

Team Worker

ShaperCompany

Worker/ Implementer

Completer/ finisher

PlantMonitor/

EvaluatorSpecialist

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 one’s 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-BooksD.Constantine-Simms,

Everything you need to know to pass psychometric tests.Magazines

HRM Review February 2007Websiteshttp://www.teamfocus.co.uk/different_types_of_psychometric_tests.htmhttp://changingminds.org/disciplines/hr/selection/psychometric.htmhttp://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.orgwww.humanmetrics.comhttp://www.opp.co.uk