Psychological Tests



Psychological Tests

Introduction

The psychological tests are defined as the process that administers, scores and interprets psychological tests. The psychological tests make the person to perform specific behavior an action that is both measurable and observable. The behavior that the individual performs is used in measuring the various personal attributes, characteristics and traits which are considered to be important in describing and understanding the behavior of human. These psychological tests can be of different types. They can differ in the behavior that is required by the psychologists, what they measure and their content and how they are formatted and administered. They can also differ in terms of how the individuals are interpreted and scored and their quality of psychometrics. The difference can be on the basis of the performed behavior, attribute which is to be measured and the predicted outcome, content, format and administration, interpretation and scoring, and the psychometric quality (www.sagepub.com). This assignment is focused on highlighting the use of psychological tests is relation to the managerial issues, ethical issues and the labor laws.

Discussion

Use of Psychological Tests in Relation to the Managerial Issues

There are many employers that use the psychological tests for screening the applicants that apply for a job. The use of psychological tests increased in 1988 when the employers' usage of polygraphs was banned by the federal law. There are many reasons behind the increase in use of personality tests. They are as:

The decisions of bad hiring are costly for the employers in terms of theft, use of drugs that will lead to absenteeism and sickness and will in turn make the employer suffer from economic losses. Therefore, the ability to judge the honesty of an applicant and to forecast that the applicant might engage in substance abuse is very useful for the employer.

The fear of legal liabilities that may arise due to sexual harassment or negligent hiring caused the employers to conduct screening that will be designed for identifying the emotional disorders and also help the employers to predict whether the applicant has the tendency for harassing or violent behavior. This has been due to the increase in the incidences related to the violence in the workplace.

The cost of replacing employees is very high which further encourages the employers in using personality tests as a method of reducing the turnover.

The use of reference check has failed to provide the employers with the meaningful information because the previous employers are mostly hesitant in revealing the negative information regarding the employees that have left the organization due to the fear of lawsuits on the basis of defamation.

There are some employers that want to test for some qualities in the applicants that leads to success in a specific job or which might e unsuitable for the job.

Due to these factors, the use of personality tests has increased and along with them the types of personality tests have also increased. Many employers prefer Guilford Zimmerman Temperament Survey and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. There are many tests that are ...