Types of Psychological Tests for Interview

Description

Many employers conduct psychological interviews with job candidates to determine a person’s character and ability to handle the job. A psychological interview ferrets out your work ethic and honesty or determines whether you might be the type of person that loses control or steals on the job. Psychological testing also called psychological assessment is the foundation of how psychologists better understand a person and their behavior. It is a process of problem solving for many professionals  to try and determine the core components of a person’s psychological or mental health problems, personality, IQ or some other component. It is also a process that helps identifies not just weaknesses of a person, but also their strengths.

Psychological tests are standardized and objective measures of a typical behavioral sample. ‘Sample behavior’ implies one’s performance on certain tasks which had been assigned to him/her beforehand.

Preparation

Make an effort to arrive at the interview completely rested and refreshed. Get a good’s night sleep the night before the interview. Eat a light, nutritious breakfast and try to stay relaxed. Although in the moment they might seem larger than life, interviewers are people just like you. That means they’re susceptible to the same psychological preferences and cognitive biases that affect the rest of us.

Simple tweaks to the way you speak and hold yourself can make you seem much more likable,competent, and hirable in their eyes. During the interview, you must show the hiring manger why you are an indispensable asset to his department. Then you may need to pass a psychological test to be offered the job. Psychological tests are increasingly part of the recruiting process.

Why Companies Use Psychological Tests

Businesses want to ensure they hire the right person. Job applicants may submit an effective resume and perform well during an interview, but they usually highlight only positive attributes. So how can a business be sure it picks an applicant who is a perfect fit for the position and actually can do the work? The answer is psychological tests.

1. Employee Personality Tests:

Personality tests are the most popular of the psychological tests. They are designed to measure five traits: openness, emotional stability, extroversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness. These are either projective (answers are more subjective and unrestricted to any scale or measure) or objective tests (mainly consisting of true/false responses; responses which are restricted to a scale).

2. Achievement/IQ tests:

While an achievement test is a measure of one’s developed knowledge or skill, IQ tests, on the other hand, provide measures of intelligence and other cognitive faculties. A standardized test is the most common example of an achievement test that provides insight into the respondent’s knowledge and skills in a particular field of expertise or a particular grade level.

3. Intelligence Aptitude Tests:

Intelligence aptitude tests are considered excellent predictors of job success. Studies show they are better indicators than interviewing a candidate or considering a candidate’s experience or education. These short multiple choice tests measure a candidate’s problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills and reasoning abilities.

4. Attitude tests:

These tests try and assess the respondent’s reaction towards a certain event, object or another person. In the marketing field, attitude ranks or scales are used to find out group or individual preferences for items or brands. The individual’s attitude towards the environment, other people or places is judged in this kind of test. Some common examples are,
• Likert Scale
• Thurstone Scale

5. Skills Tests:

Some jobs require a specific skill set in order for employees to be successful. Companies want to make sure potential employees are able to perform certain job skills.

6. Observation (Direct) Tests:

Primarily used for research work, direct observation tests allow for observing the behavior of the respondent as he/she completes certain tasks and activities.

7. Neuropsychology Tests:

The Neuro-psychological tests are usually conducted when an individual has suffered a traumatic stress or injury. To check the proper cognitive functioning of the brain, these kinds of tests are conducted. Some typical examples of these tests include,
• Benton Visual Retention Test
• Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

8. Intelligence Tests:

Intelligence is not a measure of what a person knows but rather how effectively a person processes information. The most widely used intelligence tests are those developed by David Wechsler. There are three Wechsler tests, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPRI), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

9. Interest tests:

As the name suggests, aptitude tests help gauge the respondent’s aptitudes such as spatial, numerical, clerical or mechanical aptitudes. Interest tests are designed to find out the participant’s areas of interest, the results of which are used for purposes such as career counseling.

10. Observation (Direct) Tests:

Primarily used for research work, direct observation tests allow for observing the behavior of the respondent as he/she completes certain tasks and activities.