What is Psychometrics and What is it For?

When applying for jobs, some companies and employers will conduct psychometric testing. When you apply for college, admissions committees can gain a sense of who you are through things like your personal statement and transcripts. When it comes to entering the job market, a new employer only has one’s resume and cover letter to go off of. So, psychometric tests can offer a way to gauge a potential employee’s abilities in advance of hiring them. This leads to the question of, “What is psychometric?”

Psychometrics is a field of study that looks to quantify and assess a person’s psychology. It helps to answer whether or not a potential candidate will be a good fit for a role in terms of skills and attitude.

We’ll cover what psychometrics are, the various types of tests, as well as the methods employed to conduct such tests.

What is a Psychometric?

A psychometric is a psychological measurement. It’s obtained by performing a range of psychometric tests. These tests seek to measure one’s knowledge, abilities, skills, educational achievement, and personality traits.

Psychometrics tests are generally performed by psychometricians, who are mostly psychologists with specialized graduate training. The field is a mixture of psychology, analytics, statistics, and behavioral science.

What is a Psychometric Test?

There are a variety of psychometrics tests which can be deployed. Most commonly, the tests can fall into these categories:

Numerical

Test you on your ability to answer questions that deal with numbers, like graphs, tables, and word problems.

Verbal

Verbal assessments test one’s ability to comprehend tone from the written word. In most cases, these tests will ask questions with the given responses of:  “true,” “false,” or “cannot say.”

Logical

Logical tests are not verbal. They assess one’s deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, abstract reasoning or diagrammatic reasoning.

Spatial reasoning

Spatial reasoning tests are designed to check one’s ability to navigate 2D or 3D spaces.

Concentration

These see how quickly someone can complete tasks, as well as test their accuracy. It’s often used in the hiring process for jobs in administrative, communication or transportation.

Error-Checking

This is a test of attention to detail. Such tests are used to hire for positions in education, hospitality, marketing and engineering, to name a few.

Technical

Technical tests will assess one’s numerical, spatial, visual, and mechanical skills. They don’t require knowledge in advance, but rather can be used to understand one’s aptitude for technical skills.

Types of Psychometric Tests

Psychometric tests are used in the hiring process, as well as to understand one’s academic achievements. The different tests will be used in three main areas to screen employees:

Aptitude

Aptitude tests help employers know whether or not you will be able to fulfill your job duties before being hired. They are designed to determine your ability to learn and apply a skill. A popular aptitude test is a personality test, which helps employers gauge how well you can cope with stress and how good you are at making decisions.

Cognitive

Cognitive psychometric tests evaluate reasoning, mathematical, and verbal capabilities. The most common type is an IQ test. These are conducted to test how well you have learned from your education, training or instruction.

Personality

Personality tests help employers understand potential employees’ emotional adjustments, motivations, and attitude.

Psychometric Test Methods

There are different methods that can be applied for psychometric tests. The three most common methods are:

Observation

A simple method is to watch people in whatever environment may be designed to test. These environments can be controlled, natural or participatory. In a controlled observation, the researcher plans the circumstances and applies a standard approach. Natural observations can test a participant’s natural reactions and spontaneous behaviors. Participant observations are a type of natural observation, but in this setting, the research becomes involved in the group to gain deeper insights into the lives of their participants.

Projective

Projective techniques are where a researcher will present abstract words, images or scenes. Then, the participant must respond to what is presented. Their reactions provide a way to understand the psychology behind their thoughts, and can be used to understand one’s past or even future behavior.

Personality Inventories

Managers and counselors can provide potential employees with self-assessment tools. They help to answer one’s strengths, weaknesses, social traits, motivations, and attitudes. Of course, these are useful to know when someone is entering a new position so the hiring manager can sense whether or not they are making the right decision.

The History of Psychometric Tests

Psychometric tests began simply with personality tests through assessments and questionnaires. The field evolved naturally as psychologists began to apply statistical measurement.

With the aid of complex data and analytics, the tests have become a sound and accurate way to measure one’s psychological capacity.

The Bottom Line

It’s possible to go through life and never have to take a psychometrics test. However, some employers will conduct them during the hiring process. Other people may even choose to take personality tests online to find out more about themselves.

Psychometrics is an interesting field that helps to measure and quantify what’s happening behind the scenes of one’s psyche. These moods, motivations, attitudes, and abilities can all be used to assess one’s ability to perform a job as desired.