What is a Psychometric Assessment or Profile?
Nearly everyone has written a “self description” type of assessment at some time in their career(s). Psychometric assessments ask the candidate to describe themselves through a set of prescribed words. A well designed test has NO “face validity” meaning the individuals would have difficulty knowing how they should answer to present themselves in a desirable manner. The tests measure characteristics about an individual. To be effective, the results must describe the individual which is referred to as descriptive validity. Good psychometric assessments are good profiles of an individual’s personality and properly validated, can also be extremely accurate at identifying the common traits of successfully performing individuals (as opposed to the less successful) in a given work environment. If an assessment accurately describes the individual, then with properly established “norms”, it should also accurately predict the individual’s performance in the environment. This “model” helps many t
