PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING: HR PERSPECTIVE

Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological
construct such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual.

It involves the integration of information from multiple sources, such as tests of normal and abnormal
personality, tests of ability or intelligence, tests of interests or attitudes and so on.

These Psychological tests assist the HR manager in planning and making placement decisions, diagnosing and
evaluating the overall personality of the individuals and facilitate them for a better future.

It uses multiple assessment techniques to evaluate employees for a variety of manpower purposes and decisions.

It focuses on providing information on the individual’s current and potential competence to perform a job
successfully.

It squarely focuses on the behavior that an individual demonstrates and should ideally demonstrate.

It helps elicit personal and capability information and data on people to help make more informed decisions and
encourages greater objectivity in decisions pertaining particularly to career, potential and succession planning.

It enables in effectively and efficiently hiring new, smarter recruits given the war for talent.

A psychological testing in context to HR consists of a standardized evaluation of behavior based on multiple

inputs obtained through tools & techniques.

It helps in recruitment and selection, talent retention, turnover reduction and performance management.

RELEVANCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING IN HR

 Reviewing the effectiveness of attracting and retaining top talent with the help of psychological
testing.

 To give insights into the process of aligning human resources with the need to develop capability
and chart out the differences between the superior and average performers of an organization
including identifying and developing technical, managerial, business, functional and behavioral
competencies of an employee in reference to psychological testing.

 To analyze and develop the managerial competencies with respect to industry demands.

The psychological tests are used in different aspects to measure the overall personality of the
individual.
These tests include IQ test, EQ Test, Attitude, aptitude, stress, anxiety, and personality tests.

Types of psychological tests

There are several broad categories of psychological tests:

 IQ/achievement tests: IQ tests purport to be measures of intelligence, while achievement tests

are measures of the use and level of development of use of the ability. IQ (or cognitive) tests and
achievement tests are common norm-referenced tests. In these types of tests, a series of tasks is
presented to the person being evaluated, and the person's responses are graded according to
carefully prescribed guidelines. After the test is completed, the results can be compiled and
compared to the responses of a norm group, usually composed of people at the same age or grade
level as the person being evaluated.
IQ tests which contain a series of tasks typically divide the tasks into verbal (relying on the use of
language) and performance, or non-verbal (relying on eye–hand types of tasks, or use of symbols or
objects). Examples of verbal IQ test tasks are vocabulary and information (answering general
knowledge questions). Non-verbal examples are timed completion of puzzles (object assembly) and
identifying images which fit a pattern (matrix reasoning).

 Attitude tests: Attitude test assess an individual's feelings about an event, person, or object.
Attitude scales are used in marketing to determine individual (and group) preferences for brands,
or items. Typically attitude tests use either a Thurston Scale, or Likert Scale to measure specific
items.

 Neuropsychological tests: These tests consist of specifically designed tasks used to measure a
psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. They are
typically used to assess impairment after an injury or illness known to affect neuro-cognitive
functioning, or when used in research, to contrast neuropsychological abilities across experimental
groups.

 Personality tests: Psychological measures of personality are often described as either

objective tests or projective tests. The terms "objective test" and "projective test" have
recently come under criticism in the Journal of Personality Assessment. The more descriptive
"rating scale or self-report measures" and "free response measures" are suggested, rather than the
terms "objective tests" and "projective tests," respectively.

 Objective tests (Rating scale or self-report measure): Objective tests have a restricted response
format, such as allowing for true or false answers or rating using an ordinal scale. Prominent
examples of objective personality tests include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory,
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III, Child Behavior Checklist, Symptom Checklist 90and the Beck
Depression Inventory.

 Projective tests (Free response measures): Projective tests allow for a freer type of response. An
 example of this would be the Rorschach test, in which a person states what each of ten ink blots
might be.They may also be useful in creating inferences to follow-up with other methods. The most
widely used scoring system for the Rorschach is the Exner system of scoring. Another common
projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which is often scored with Westen's Social
Cognition and Object Relations Scales and Phebe Cramer's Defense Mechanisms Manual. Both
"rating scale" and "free response" measures are used in contemporary clinical practice, with a trend
toward the former.

Other projective tests include the House-Tree-Person Test, Robert's Apperception Test, and the Attachment
Projective.

 The intelligence test: assists HR professionals in predicting the performance of an individual in

virtually any job.

 The responses of an individual are compared with the evaluations made by successful
employees in the relevant position. These measures may prove to be highly valuable tools for
predicting team playing or other interpersonal skills.

 Psychological measures of personality used for assessing the inner personality of the individual
are called as TAT and sentence completion test. These tests help in evaluating the inner traits
that predicts future prospects of the employee. It also measures conscientiousness, openness
to experiences, how extrovert a person is, emotional stability, agreeableness, integrity,
teamwork and responsibility on the job.

 Stress test is a form of test that is used to determine the stability of a given system or entity. It
involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in order to observe
the results.

 Anxiety test helps us to measure the psychological condition in which a person experiences distress
before, during, or after a test or other assessment to such an extent that this anxiety causes poor
performance or interferes with normal learning.

Interpreting scores
Psychological tests, like many measurements of human characteristics, can be interpreted in a norm-referenced or
criterion-referenced manner. Norms are statistical representations of a population. A norm-referenced score
interpretation compares an individual's results on the test with the statistical representation of the population. In
practice, rather than testing a population, a representative sample or group is tested. This provides a group norm
or set of norms. One representation of norms is the Bell curve (also called "normal curve"). Norms are available
for standardized psychological tests, allowing for an understanding of how an individual's scores compare with
the group norms. Norm referenced scores are typically reported on the standard score (z) scale or a rescaling of it.

A criterion-referenced interpretation of a test score compares an individual's performance to some criterion other
than performance of other individuals. For example, the generic school test typically provides a score in reference
to a subject domain; a student might score 80% on a geography test. Criterion-referenced score interpretations are
generally more applicable to achievement tests rather than psychological tests.

Often, test scores can be interpreted in both ways; a score of 80% on a geography test could place a student at the
84th percentile, or a standard score of 1.0 or even 2.0.

Tools used for psychological testing

1) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

It is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive

the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories
proposed by Carl Gustav Jung . The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of
naturally occurring differences.CPP Inc., the publisher of the MBTI instrument, calls it "the world’s most
widely used personality assessment", with close to two million assessments administered annually.

Some academic psychologists have criticized the MBTI instrument, claiming that it "lacks convincing
validity data". Proponents of the test, however, cite reports of individual behavior and have found that the
indicator meets or exceeds the reliability of other psychological instruments. Some studies have found
strong support for construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability, although variation
was observed.

2) Enneagram Tests
The Enneagram is a nine factor personality system that is sort of a historical mutt, many different
influences. The nine factors are - orderliness, helpfulness, image focus, hypersensitivity, detachment,
caution, adventurousness, strength, and calmness.

3) Jung Tests
These tests are based on the work of Carl Jung, David Kiersey, Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs. They
are similar in underlying theory to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Kiersey
Temperment Sorter. They measure four bipolar factors, Introversion/Extroversion, Thinking/Feeling,
Intuition/Sensing, and Judging/Percieving.

4) Percentile Tests
These tests show you how your answers on statements or descriptive words/phrases compare to other
people who have answered in the past, a useful/interesting test to see how you compare to others on
different issues.

5) Big Five Tests

The Big Five is the most proven personality test in the academic research community presently. It is
composed of 5 factors - open-mindedness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and
extroversion (the factor names vary a little among authors).
 6) Right-Left Brain Tests (Brain Laterization)
These tests measure your right and left brain functions, indicating strengths and possible weaknesses,
and whether you are more dominant in one hemisphere.

7) Compatibility Tests
These multi-user tests require two or more people to respond to receive results (an option to email the
test is available). The single user tests are self reporting (you can provide the answers for yourself and
the person you are trying to assess compatibility with).
Multi-user Enneagram Test
Single-user Enneagram Test
Single-user Jung test
Single-user Big Five Test
8) Personality Tools
Word Association Test - this test displays a series of words for you to answer positive, negative, or
neutral to and then displays your responses and response times.
Ask The Oracle is a decision making tool.
Query the Universal Mind allows you to type in an interest (author, band, book, movie, etc) and then
searches a database of over 20,000 users to find interests which correlate with it.
Search Minds allows you to take a personality test and see what users from a large database match most
closely to your personality type.

9) Other Personality Tests

Personality Disorder Test - this test is based on the 10 DSM-IV personality disorders.
Eysenck Personality Test - based on the personality theory of pioneering theorist Hans Eysenck, 3
factors - extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.
Cattell 16 Factor Test - based on the work of Raymond Cattell, another personality research pioneer.

More companies are practicing the method of giving employment personality tests to prospective applicants. It is
their gauge to measure the applicant's personality and character. It could give them a good idea if the applicant
has the proper attitude and mind-set to fit into the company's own goals.

Identifying the desirable characteristic traits of an applicant is an important tool in guiding hiring managers how
to supervise people who are accountable to them. They would be able to match important traits and skills in key
positions that would enable the applicant to handle the responsibilities given them.

The employment personality test would be able to cover important areas that are needed for the job such as the
applicant's attitude, disposition, stress levels, sociability and interests. Most of these traits could somehow help
determine if the applicant can handle work in any given situation. It would also be a basis if the applicant has a
good chance of moving forward to a higher position in the future.

Another important use of the employment personality test is to know if the applicant has the capability of staying
long with the company. Most companies don't want to spend time and effort in hiring people who would be
staying only for a few years. One of their main purposes is to hire the right people for the job and who would stay
with the company for a very long time. Of course there would be incentives such as training and further
development of skills that would add to the reasons why the applicant should stay on.

The employment personality test would make the company feel at ease knowing more about the people they hire.
Aside from the usual interviews that they do, hiring companies like to look at the overall package of the applicant
in terms of experience, skills, attitude and character. Sometimes, the personality test is given more weight than the
others because they believe that the applicant's character would be more important. It is the character which
makes the applicant think, decide and perform well in the job.

Though the employment personality test is one of the main pre-employment tools that most hiring companies use,
it is not really taken as the sole factor in hiring of applicants. In reality, most hiring managers like to look at the
applicant's detailed resume depicting their education, skills and experiences, then do the interview and then have
the employment personality test. After thorough comparison with others, the hiring managers would choose the
best person for the job.

Thus, psychological testing plays a vital role in the organization, helping the company in selecting and
retaining the right employees, thereby building long term relationship between the organization and
the employee and enhancing organization effectiveness.

REFERENCES
 www.contentwriter.in/articles/hr/psychological-testing.htm

 http://psychologyonline-2.blogspot.com/.../categories-of-psychological-tests-know.html

 www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Psychological_testing

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

 www.humanresources.hrvinet.com/what-is-mbti/

 http://bizvantage.in/psychometric_tools.asp

 www.articlesbase.com/.../the-basic-of-employment-personality-tests-3353688.html

 www.ideamarketers.com/?Employee_Personality_Test

 www.sooperarticles.com/.../employment-personality-test-179307.html

 http://www.psychtests.com/solutions/hr_testing

 http://www.contentwriter.in/articles/hr/psychological-testing.html