A comparison and contrast of psychological tests
In the fields of research and psychology, it is important that cases be measured in precision. Psychological testing therefore comes in handy, whereby valid results are arrived at after correct administration of treatments.
It is after psychological testing that researchers understand the behavior and character of an individual. As such, it is a way of solving problems for the psychologists by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a person.
There are different types of psychological testing some of which determine the personality of individuals while others determine their IQ. Thus, psychological testing can be divided into clinical interviews, personality assessment, assessment of Intellectual Functioning, and behavioral assessment.
Other psychological tests include aptitudes and management skills tests. Each of the aforementioned psychological tests differs from the other in terms of evidence base and the type of results obtained with regard to validity and reliability.
Validity is defined as the honesty of the response given by a respondent in a survey while reliability is the consistency in results obtained when tested suing different testing methods (Viswanathan, 2005).
Clinical Interview vs. personality assessment
The two are similar given that they present an opportunity for the professional to obtain much information with regard to family data and individual background of the persons being assessed. Both tests also create a face-to-face discussion between the researcher and respondent.
However, they differ in terms of setting and the fact that the clinical interview normally lasts for about one to two hours while the personality assessment could take as much time as possible (Gregory, 2007).
In addition to this, personality assessment is objective based while the clinical interview is open allowing the researcher to seek as much information as they may deem fit.
Different types of decisions I-O practitioners might make using results of psychological tests
Industrial/ organizational psychology entails the scientific study of the psychology that have an impact on the productivity of individuals at work. As such, I-O psychology works to improve the working conditions and environment of people.
Thus, I-O practitioners normally seek to generate solutions to the problems that people face at their places of work. I-O practitioners could use tests such as biographical data, integrity tests, job knowledge tests, interviews, and physical ability tests just to mention a few (Kaplan and Saccuzzo, 2009).
Once the aforementioned tests are tested on individuals, results are obtained hence decisions are made. I-O practitioners could either make individual or institutional decisions.
Individual decisions are those that the researcher comes into a conclusion after they have carried out the specific tests while institutional decisions are those that other people make after looking at the results obtained by different researchers.
Comparative decisions could also be made by comparing the different scores obtained by different researchers in a specific test (Kaplan and Saccuzzo, 2009).
Recent trends in the use of tests in organizations
It is clear that research has found its way in almost all organizations in the recent past. Employers have been noted to carry out internal research as well as incorporating external practitioners to establish the unfavorable working conditions for their workers. This is because of employee motivation, which is seen as the backbone of productive and quality output by the employees. Thus, psychological testing has tremendously grown to become a norm in every organization that is competing globally.
Reference List
Gregory, R. (2007). Psychological Testing: History, Principles, and Applications. California: Allyn & Bacon.
Kaplan, M., and Saccuzzo, D. (2009). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, and issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Viswanathan, M. (2005). Measurement error and research design. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.