Types of Tests

Tests
Personnel Selection
Personality Test

Ability Tests.

Cognitive Abilities Tests are individualized assessment measures of an individual's general mental ability or intelligence. These tests may be categorized as: General Intelligence Tests, Aptitude Tests, Mechanical Aptitude, Clerical Aptitude, and Spatial Aptitude tests. The advantages to these tests for organizations are as follows. They are highly reliable in verbal reasoning and numerical tests have shown high validity for a wide range of jobs. The validity rises with increasing complexity of the job combinations of aptitude tests. They have higher validities than individual tests alone. Also they may be administered in-group settings where many applicants can be tested at the same time and the scoring of the tests may be completed by computer scanning equipment for a lower cost than personality tests. Although there are many advantages to these types of tests there are some disadvantages as well. Non-minorities typically score one standard deviation above minorities, which may result in adverse impact depending on how the scores are used in the selection process. The differences between males and females in abilities, knowledge of mathematics may negatively impact the scores of female applicants. Basically these tests are not fair to all applicants and may not give you a good idea of some of the applicant’s true qualifications. Does this seem fair to everyone.

Personality Tests.

Behavior is one of an integrated series of instruments that measure various aspects of individual, interpersonal, team, and organization phenomena. “Element B and other new measures are derived from the revised FIRO theory, which stands for Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation and is the theory of interpersonal relations introduced in 1958 by Will Schutz. The meaning of interpersonal has since been expanded to include all levels of human organization including the body, individuals, couples, groups, organizations, and nations.” In the area of behavior, the following three areas are now thought to be necessary to account for interpersonal phenomena: inclusion, control, and openness. Each element has a relationship to the others. Another personality test is the integrated battery of aptitude tests, which is designed to assist human resource managers, industrial personnel specialists, and vocational counselors in personnel guidance, hiring, training, assessment and assignment. The test consists of eight components, which may be administered singly or in any combination. The test yields nine scores. There are multiple test booklets that contain two to three tests which measure skills in related areas. There are also versions in a shortened version of Differential Aptitude Tests, which is for use with junior and senior high school students. It also contains information on norms, validities and score equivalencies. Is it fair to employees to have these tests given and used to decide weather we get a job or not. Should our schools give these tests to our children or not? We should allow these test but not in a situation where it comes down to two candidates for one position.

Work-Sample Tests.

These are tests through a period of instruction when the applicant is expected to learn tasks involved in a work sample. The work-sample tests of trainability are suitable for untrained applicants with no previous job experience. The validity of this technique is low relative to other techniques and there is evidence the validity of the instrument may satisfy over time. Recreation of an event tests present the candidate with a picture of an incident along with quotations from those involved. The candidates then respond to a series of questions in which they write down the decisions they would make. Low fidelity simulations are tests that present applicants with descriptions of work situations and five alternative responses for each situation. Applicants choose the responses they would most likely and least likely make in each situation. Work-samples are how applicants perform observable, job-related behaviors as predictors of criterion performance. It is not feasible to adapt certain work behaviors for testing. Work samples often are not conducive to group administration and, therefore, were dropped from consideration because of concerns regarding test security. Content validity is the most direct relationship between the test and job would be shown through content validation. The tasks and duties performed on the test would be compared to the tasks and duties performed on the job. The test should encompass significant (in quantity or in importance) tasks/duties of the job. Criterion Validity is to measure this validity, you must first determine what criteria will be used. Two common forms of criteria are: The disadvantage of using supervisory ratings as criteria is that they typically lack sufficient reliability to be used for statistical analysis. The reliability of these measures is attenuated by rater errors such as halo or leniency. These ratings also tend to lack the variability necessary to show a correlation between predictor and criterion. Interests.

This technique involves applicants generating self-ratings on relevant performance Over time, self-assessments can be useful to clarify job performance expectations between employees and supervisors, but initial discrepancies in understanding of what job requirements and performance dimensions between self and supervisor ratings cause problems in a performance appraisal system. The problems with this approach: Self-ratings show greater leniency, less variability, more bias, and less agreement with the judgments of others. The predictive validity of this technique is questionable. The predictors related to self-assessments and supervisor ratings may show a lack of congruence self-efficacy related to self-ratings. Research suggests that applicants may not honestly respond to this type of technique. Self-assessment scores tend to be inflated. Evidence suggests there is low face validity and perceived fairness associated with using this technique to promote law enforcement personnel. The evidence suggests low accuracy compared to objective measures. Self-assessments may not correspond to ratings from other sources peers due to a lack of congruence on which specific job dimensions are to be assessed and the relative importance of specific job dimensions. Congruency in ratings between supervisors and employees may be affected by the decision of supervisors to agree with the self-assessments of employees to avoid potential employee relation conflicts. In this test the management can’t agree weather this is a good test to measure self- ratings. So automatically, this test should not even be allowed to be used in situation that are relative to employment.

Rules to follow when giving tests.

In order to ensure that the employment test is used consistently, the test should be standardized in its administration. The test should be administered in the same manner each time it is given. This will help reduce sources of error, which would reduce the reliability of the test. If a test is to be administered, you should prepare the necessary materials such as test booklets, answer sheets, pencils, calculators, tables, tools, equipment, and or computers. Equipment used at different work sites should be arranged and calibrated to be as identical as possible. The individuals administering the test should follow printed test administration instructions. As a proctor of the test, it is important that they project themselves as an authority. The test proctors should not project an image that would prevent the examinees from approaching them with questions if needed. The test proctor should look for cheating but not invoke suspicion on the part of the examinee. It is important to monitor the examinees to see if they are having difficulty with the test materials or instructions. The instructions should be read to the examinees in addition to being printed in the test materials. The examinees should be able to read along with the test proctor as they verbalize the instructions. The instructions should be read clearly and slowly to enable all of the examinees to follow. Once the instructions have been read, the test proctor should ask the examinees if they have any questions about the test or its administration. If the test is timed, it is very important that the test proctor uses a stop watch or watch with a second hand. This will help ensure consistent test administration. Examinees may be able to answer several questions in a minute of time. Therefore, each administration of the test should be the same number of minutes. The testing environment should be free of distractions and well lit. The testing environment should not be crowded or have extreme heat/cold or humidity/dryness. The tests should be stored in a secure location to prevent unauthorized access.

In conclusion tests may not be fair to you or me but the fact of the matter is that companies give these tests and use them to make a decision on which candidate is the best to choose. I the paragraphs above I have given some examples of several tests that future employment opportunities may administer to you when you are applying for a position. These tests vary from easy to difficult and from vague to intense. Some of these tests may even pry into your personal life and at times may be difficult for you or I to answer but just be honest and give the best answer. I can also say that the interview is very important to getting a job. So when you are trying to get the position you have to be good at talking, listening, eye contact, and be well dressed remember appearance also counts. Back to tests they a fair in some aspects but they are also judge-mental which I feel that could be unfair in the final decision of employment. Remember that Personnel Selection is the methodical placement of individuals into jobs. Its impact on the organization is realized when employees achieve years or decades of service to the employer. The process of selection follows a methodology to collect information about an individual in order to determine if that individual should be employed. The methodology used should not violate any laws regarding personnel selection. After saying that do you believe the companies actually go through the process of examining the tests, checking your referances, judging you on you interviews, and apparence, "You bet they do!"