IQ Test and an Important Role in Determining the Development of Individuals - Research Paper Example

 The world has radically changed to a testing world. It seems everywhere one goes; one is subjected to a number of tests to gauge ones ability. Traditionally, tests were reserved for students but this has radically changed and tests have been applied to employment as well. This has made the whole life appear like a “test life”. Tests have been successfully used in recruitments and this trend seems to be the new mode of interviewing potential candidates. Due to the aspect of globalization and with many employment agencies wanting to tap the best talents all over the world, psychometric test have solved the question of interviewing a candidate. One no longer needs to appear in person before an interview panel to gauge their capability to deliver on the job. Psychometric tests are being administered through the internet as well. But there have been many critics of the idea of using psychometric test in school and during recruitment. Many argue about the inefficiency of the test to give the rue reflection of an individual. Critics argue than since the tests are academic in nature, it is disadvantageous for those who are not well in academics but can deliver when given the job. But the ideas of using psychometric test have been praised by many people as bringing to the organization the quality they want. Initially many organizations were faced with a problem of recruiting people who could not deliver on their jobs. That is why many people have found it necessary to use psychometric test which tends to focus on the whole individual relative to the skills required for job. Schools have also found it necessary to use psychometric tests for the student. This is because school exist with an aim of developing the whole individual person. Throughout the developmental period they must find a way of assessing whether students are following the right growth path. This is why they find it useful to use the psychometric test to assess the level of development of their students. In a school set up schools can be limited on the number of tests they administer to individual students which will depend on their level of education. But it is important to not that psychometric tests do not vary very much with the usual tests that are given in schools except that they tend to dig deep into the individual rather that focusing on the academic performance of the student. Before we go further into discussing why school and organizations finds it appropriate to use psychometric test, let us first try to understand what these tests are and how they are administered to individual. Psychometric is a term that describes measuring of mind. It is derived from psycho – which means mind and metric – which means to measure. Hence as the term suggest, psychometric tests are standards that have been designed to asses the level of performance of the mind. They are instruments that attempt to find characteristics of the mind that makes an individual different from others. Psychometric tests are meant to assess the level of performance of an individual in terms of the capacity to solve issues logically. Psychometric tests mostly take form of a simple question. It provides accurate information on what one wants to assess. These tests have been developed over a long period of time through various psychological experiments. Psychometric tests are meant to measure any attribute of a human being that one want to asses. They don’t only measure intelligence or smartness of an individual. Many psychometric tests developed now day’s moves away form measuring intelligence since it has been realized that intelligent is more complex in nature determined by multifaceted aspects of human character and experience. Intelligence does not determine success in life. It is understood that classical IQ contributes about 40 percent of individual success in life. Furthermore it is stipulated that intelligence in most ways is expressed in technical knowledge that individual holds. The higher one climbs in the organization ladder to a managerial level, the more an individual require application of technical, human and conceptual skill. These skills cannot be tapped by measuring the individual level of knowledge alone. In normal circumstances, psychometric tests will be used to asses the following aspects of a human being. It wills asses knowledge of an individual and their competence in a certain area. Knowledge and competence are captured in simple tests where individual differentiate right from wrong. They are very important in areas of technical application where individual performance will solely depend on their skills in a particular field. They are important when recruiting individual in the lower organizational level where technical skills are needed most. Psychometric tests will also measure the ability of an individual to deliver. It looks on the ability of an individual not based on what they have done before. It will asses the ability of an individual to learn new skills rather than what they have already learnt. Most of the test that asses the ability of an individual tests verbal, abstract and numerical ability of an individual. They try to test an individual in application of all dimension of performance. These tests also asses the personality of an individual. This is especially in a higher rank in the organizational. The performance of an organization depends on the personality of individual managers. These tests are theory based. They tend to test not only the skills of an individual but also the character of the person. Individual personality is perhaps one of the most difficult characters of human being since most people are able to wear a mask of them in many setting. Hence these tests helps in unravelling the true individual rather that the physical expression of an individual. In addition, these tests can also test inbuilt values of an individual. They can test ethics, motivation, and thinking pattern of an individual person. These tests tend to capture what people have in mind. This is an important human capital which has helped many organizations especially in the business world to propel. It is with the realization that workers are the most important assets that a company have, which have led to many organization seek the service of professional who are able to administer psychometric in time of recruitment. These tests also help to understand people well. Understanding people is an important aspect in organizations management. (Stone, 2006) Kinds of psychometric tests Psychometric tests can be written down of papers or based on computer software. Most of them are usually questions which are to be answered in a defined time frame. Attitude tests asses the ability of individual to perform a new task regardless of the prior experience. They tend to assess the natural ability of and individual especially in graduate recruitment process. Basically they comprises of reasoning tests with some numerical dimensions. Apart from assessing the verbal and numerical skills, they also assess ones diagrammatic and spatial reasoning. On the other hand personality questionnaires asses the individual person in terms of how they can relate with other, their personal behaviour and their control of emotion. They tend to measure the relation between the individual person and their ability to solve problems. They are useful when recruiting for top managerial jobs where an individual is supposed to provide guidance to others. Generally they assess behaviours, attitudes as well as other personal attributes like motivation, values and interests. Why do employers use psychometric tests? Psychometric tests are very important to employers especially because they tend to determine what kind of a work force that employers are recruiting. First of all theses tests determine the future of job performance. Since they tend to explore the potential of each and every candidate, these tests therefore will show what kind of a work force the organization will have in future. This paper has already stated that employees are very important asset to the business since they are like the engine of a business. Without an appropriate work force, an organization cannot function effectively. Therefore many employers are always for the best candidates for a job in hand. They will go for the best recruitment method that will give a candidate with all at the qualitative that are needed for a particular work. That is why many employers find psychometric test important since they tend to portray not only the potential of a candidate but also the personality aspect of the candidate. (Burch and Anderson, 2003) Psychometric tests are reliable in that they ensures that the employer higher the right candidate. The tests provide a scale to gauge the ability of each candidate depending on their ability. Other methods of hiring will focus more on the qualification of the individual rather than their ability. On the other hand, psychometric tests will assess not only the qualification of the individual but also it will measure the ability and suitability of the candidate for the job. Therefore it makes sure that the right candidate is hired for the job. These tests are also preferred since they are not biased. Many organizations have found that they do not employ the best candidates since they are biased in the recruitment process. That is why many of them have resulted to using psychometric test which are object, fair and not biased toward anyone. If anything, individual are recruited on the bases of their capability and not on “who you know” bases. (Wolf, 2002) Psychometric tests make the recruitment process easier. It lowers the cost of recruitment. The recruitment agency does not have to handle volumes and volumes of candidates’ documents because unsuitable candidates are eliminated at an earlier stage in the process. This saves time and cost to both the employer and the candidate. These tests have also been found of importance in school use since they tend to give a true reflection of the progress of the student. They have been found to be more effective than academic test that are normally held in school. This is because they tend to focus of the whole growth of a student. However the use of these tests has met a lot of criticism with some scholar advancing theories against the effectiveness of them. Howard Gardner is one of those who have been leading critics of the use of psychometric tests. He argued that psychometric test tends to address issue surrounding the linguistic and logical problems but leaves out other important aspects of growth of a human being. He further asserted that the set of questions that forms the bases of psychometric test do not fully address issues concerning other abilities of an individual like the ability to talk. Gardner proposed the Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence which includes other human aspects like musical and body kinaesthetics as important in determining the ability of an individual. This theory stipulates that there are other important human aspects that affect their operation. An example is cultural variation. He faulted psychometric test in that they don’t tend to find in details all the aspects of a person which are important for their performance. (Bandura, 2001) However we cannot say that psychometric tests do not play a part in assessing the level of performance of an individual. As stipulate by Gardner, there are other important ways in which a human being can demonstrate their ability to perform a given task. What psychometric test does is that they try to tap all the angle of an individual ability rather than relying on academic qualification of an individual as the only measure. Gardner had a point to express in his theory. It is true that test on papers or computer do not reflect the true ability of an individual but rather tends to rely on the level of training of that person. A mathematical performance cannot be a guaranteed means of assessing the ability of an individual to solve a problem. Some problem takes multiple directions and requires multifaceted approach to solve them. It has been found that street children’s conduct their business relatively well in the street even if they do not have education in solving mathematical problems. This shows that they have a natural ability to solve a problem. (Cieri and Kramar, 2005) Psychometric tests have been used for a long time to asses the level of development of students. Initially this was applied in school tests but it has gradually changed to psychometric test. Psychometric tests are just an improvement of school tests. This shows that they perform the same roles as academic test. Critics of the psychometric test have not given credible evidence on which these they should not be used apart from saying that they do not look into the whole human nature. But it is to be understood that psychometric test are not used alone especially in case of employment. They are combined with other methods to ensure that t he appropriate candidate is chosen. Psychometric test are just a way of capturing individual suitability. They cannot be the final decision maker. Academic scripts will prove the qualification of an individual. For any job that is being interviewed, there is a certain level of academic qualification that is needed. A social worker cannot attend a psychometric test for engineering. Psychometric test are not the first step in recruitment process. They act as a mean of refining the process to get the person who is best fitted for the job. The level of academic qualification is the first step in determining those who will undergo the test. At this stage those who do not meet the academic qualification will be sorted out. Those who pass the psychometric test do not get a direct qualification for the job but they must be vetted through another process in order to get those who are most suited. Other means most probable a face to face interview is used which tends to bring out the true personal qualities of a candidate. Direct interview is a powerful tool that helps in getting more details about an individual than expressed in the psychometric test. Intelligence tests like IQ test have played an important role in determining the development of individuals. They have been successfully used in measuring achievement in terms of individual development, school performance, and others. However psychometric tests have come up to try and address the different factors that they do not address. Others like Robert Sternberg have formulated the Triarchic theory which proposes the need for balance between analytical intelligence and practical intelligence. Robert sees a gap between the analytical intelligence and practical intelligence. It is clear that one can gain a lot of knowledge academically which can be analyzed through intelligence tests but find it difficult to apply it. This is the problem that psychometric test try to solve by trying to link analytic knowledge and its application. (Neisser, 1995) Hence psychometric test cannot be dismissed as being inefficient in assessing an individual person. They are important tools for employers in getting the right person for a job. Rather than criticizing the tests, critics should try to upgrade the tests to cover a wide area. References Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive theory: A Perspective. Annual Review of Psychology; 25, 4-16 Burch, G. and Anderson, N. (2003): Measuring person-team fit: Development and Validation of the team selection inventory. Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 19, Issue 4; pp 2-26 Cieri, H. and Kramar, R. (2005): Human resource management in Australia. Hill: Australia publishers. Neisser, U. (1995): Intelligence: known and Unknowns. Report of a Task Force established by the Board of Scientific Affairs of the APA; Emory University Psychometric Tests; the British Psychological Society; Retrieved from, Psychometric (2006): Retrieved from, http://www.soton.ac.uk/cas/documents/psychometric.pdf on 12th January 2008 Stone, R. (2006). Managing Human Resources; Wiley: QLD Wolf, J. A. (2002). The growth of Psychometric Testing for selection; London: Centre for Economic Education. Read More