Reliability and Validity in Personality Testing Essay

Reliability and Validity in Personality Testing 02-16-2015 Introduction Psychological tests are often used in the selection of projective personnel (Anastasia Urbina, 1997). The idea is that by using the scientific approach to personality and emotional intelligence testing in hiring, the employers will be able to increase the number of successful employees (Beaz lll, 2013). â€Å"Personality refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits†, which in relationship to a person’s projected Emotional Intelligence (EI) may lead to matching the right person to the right job. Job proficiency tests are used to select candidates for employment and are the number one tool used to match the right†¦show more content†¦In this paper, I will examine how personality tests are constructed, how to determine reliability and validity, as well as to how personality tests can be projected. The construction of personality testing A factor analysis can be done to establish construct validity by identifying and defining psychological traits. It is a refined statistical technique to analyze the interrelationships of behavior data. For example, a number of tests can be given to an x amount of people. Effective placement implies that traits that are irrelevant to the job should not be considered as determining factors. This is an urgent matter because of the concern for adverse effects on culturally and educationally disadvantaged minorities. For example, a number of tests can be given to an x amount of people. Comparison of the data may reveal cluster locations of common traits. For instance, vocabulary and sentence completion tests may highly correlate with, and infer a verbal comprehension factor. Thus, the number of variables can be reduced to common traits, resulting in five or six traits to account for correlations between larger numbers of tests. Each person may be evaluated in terms of these clustered com mon traits. This correlation is often referred to as the factorial validity of a test. Ratings and criterion measures can be used to explore the factorial composition of a test and to define the common traits it measures (Anastasia Urbina, 1997). TheShow MoreRelatedPersonality Theories And Internet Testing1061 Words   |  5 PagesPersonality Theories Why has personality theories and internet testing created so much interest in the hiring process? Can you judge a person s ability to perform the work just by giving them a personality assessment? Not always, but in the process of hiring many organizations can rely on personality theories and testing, which helps the process of pre-selection. Personality theories help measure, cognitive ability, knowledge, and personality of potential candidates. 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