Psychological tests are objective standardized measures used in employee selection to assess abilities and predict future performance. They have advantages over other selection methods like interviews in being easier to evaluate and uncover hidden talents. However, they also have limitations like inability to perfectly predict job success, risk of unfair rejection, and potential for faking responses. Psychological tests work best as a supplement to other techniques rather than the sole evaluation method. Common types used include intelligence, aptitude, personality, and interest tests.

1. Psychological Tests Used in Employee Selection:
Meaning,
Definition, Characteristics, Types, Advantages,
Criticisms, and
Limitations

2. Introduction
• Psychological tests as a selection technique have certain definite advantages over other methods
of selection.
• Generally, it is easier to evaluate a psychological test than it is to evaluate other selection devices
such as interviews, letters of recommendation, etc.
• Tests have another advantage that they uncover talents and potentials which are not necessarily
detected by other selection techniques .
• Besides selection, psychological tests are useful in discovering reasons for job failure based upon
personality traits, and even determining susceptibility to accidents.
• The use of psychological tests in industry today has steadily expanded and psychological testing
has definitely earned a place in selection procedure.

3. Introduction
• The limitations and dangers of psychological testing include unfair rejection of
applicants, faking of test responses, and poor quality of test administration.
• It is better to use tests as supplement to other techniques like interviews and
background checks, instead of relying solely on test results when evaluating a
candidate.

4. Meaning and Definition
• An important device used in personnel selection is psychological test.
• A scientific definition of psychological test may be given as follows –
“A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized
measure of a sample of behavior from which inferences about future
behavior and performance of the candidate can be drawn”.

5. Characteristics
• Psychological tests are carefully developed instruments, following certain highly standardized and often
intricate procedures discovered by the psychologists as a result of long researches.
1. Assumption: People possessing varying skills or other attributes perform differently on a job. The different
attributes of the person are revealed when tests are used. The underlying assumption of all tests is that the
way the person behaves or responds during a test is a likely projection of the person’s normal reactions and
abilities.
2. Standardization: It refers to the consistency of procedures and conditions under which people take a test.
The instruments or tools used in the test should be uniform and standardized.
3. Objectivity: It involves the accurate and consistent scoring of a test, unbiased by the personal
characteristics of the scorer.
4. Reliability: It refers to the consistency of responses on a test. If a test possesses of high reliability, a person
who is tested a second or third time with the same test under the same conditions, will obtain approximately
the same score.
i. Test-retest Method ii. Equivalent-forms Method iii. Split-Halves Method

6. Characteristics
5. Validity: Validity is concerned with how well a test measures what -it intends to
measure.
-Content validity: how well the content of the test questions relate to the subject matter
being measured.
-Face validity: test relevant to the person taking it.(test items relate to job activities)
- concurrent validity: test score related to the performance.
- Predictive validity: Relationship between scores on a test and some future behavior,
which is required of a person if he is to perform successfully the job for which he is
being tested.
-Construct validity: the extent to which test score measures the psychological quality,
like ‘intelligence’ or ‘introversion’ or ‘dominance’ etc.

7. Characteristics
6. Utility:
It is concerned with the extent to which a particular test can be used with ease.
And for that it is essential that questions asked should be simple, the method easy,
the time involved less, interpretation of test scores easy, and the expenses less.

8. Types of Psychological Tests Used in Employee Selection
Psychological tests can be categorized as measures of general ability
(intelligence), aptitude or achievement, personality and interest. Each type of
test may be used in an industrial setting depending upon existing needs.
1. General Ability Tests:

9. Types of Psychological Tests Used in Employee Selection
• 2.Aptitude Test:
Aptitude tests are tests that are used for predicting basic human
characteristics or abilities that are related to the capacity to develop
proficiency on specific jobs. The characteristics we call aptitudes can be
grouped into five classes: a) mental abilities, b) mechanical and related
activities, c) psychomotor activities, d) visual skills, e) other specialized
aptitudes (such as clerical aptitude, reading speed and comprehension,
vocabulary, perceptual speed etc.)

10. Types of Psychological Tests Used in Employee Selection
• Mental Ability Tests: The term mental ability is used synonymously with the term
intelligence. The field of mental ability testing has been more thoroughly explored than any
other are of testing.
• Mechanical Ability Tests: Here, the term mechanical ability is refer to the mental aspects,
such as mechanical comprehension and the understanding of mechanical principles that are
required in mechanical jobs.
• Psychomotor Tests: Psychomotor tests are those which measure combination of sensory
and muscular abilities. Some important kinds measurable of psychomotor abilities are:
response orientation, reaction time, speed of arm movement, rate control, manual dexterity,
finger dexterity, aiming etc.
• Vision Tests: Such tests are highly used in production industries. Some form of vision test,
administered either in employment office or as part of the medical examination, is perhaps,
more common in industry than is any other form of employment tests.

11. Types of Psychological Tests Used in Employee Selection
3. Achievement Test: An achievement test is a test of developed skill or
knowledge. The most common type of achievement test is a standardized test
developed to measure skills and knowledge learned in a given level, usually
through planned instruction, such as training or classroom instruction.
There are various types of achievement tests which can be grouped into three
categories:
`
a) Job Sample Tests; b) Written Tests; and c) Oral tests

12. Types of Psychological Tests Used in Employee Selection
• Personality Tests: These should be administered by properly trained personnel; a
master’s degree in psychology is usually a minimum requirement, a doctorate is
preferable. Personality tests measure abstract concepts such as aggressiveness,
independence, support, conformity, passivity and the like.
• Interest Tests: These tests tell how a person’s interests compare with the interests of
others in various occupational groups. The assumption is that a person will be more
satisfied working among those with similar likes and dislikes.

13. Advantages of Psychological Tests
1. These tests provide a systematic procedure for measuring a sample of human behavior from
which inference about future behavior and performance of the candidates are drawn.
2. These tests are successfully used in decisions relating to placement, promotion, transfer,
counselling and training of employees.
3. These tests help in reducing personal bias and subjective judgment in the process of selection.
4. These tests help to identify talent which may otherwise be overlooked.
5. These tests enable the management to evaluate a large number of candidates through one test and
collect considerable information about the candidates within a short period of time.

14. Criticisms
1. Psychological tests are not reliable; they can be easily “faked”; they invade
the privacy of the individual tested; they “mark” him for life.
2. Psychological tests are unfair to culturally diverse groups.
3. Psychological tests encourage undesirable conformity among employees;
and
4. Psychological tests are subterfuges, used by managers to obscure the
real reasons for rejections.

15. Limitations of Psychological Tests
1. The psychological tests are not infallible or fully reliable because they measure
roughly only one of the various aspects of a human being.
2. A psychological testing program requires employment of a trained psychologist if
it is to be properly administered.
3. Pertinent tests must be selected from a large number of available tests,
since some widely publicized tests are of very little use.
4. Such tests cannot make a hundred per cent prediction of a candidate’s on-the-job
success. They can, at the most, reveal that those who have scored above the cut-off
point will be more successful than those who have scored below the cut-off point.
5. Such tests can be used only when the number of candidates is large enough. But if
the number of candidates is small, then the administration of tests will not be
economical.
It should therefore be noted that psychological tests are designed to supplement other
screening methods and not to replace them