The document discusses psychometric tools used for psychological assessment. It defines measurement and its core characteristics like standardized administration. It describes different types of measurements including tests of maximum and typical performance. It outlines scales used in psychological assessment and discusses the design of personality questionnaires. The document also summarizes several popular psychometric tools used in India like MBTI, SHL, DDI, and Predictive Index. It notes that while use is growing, many Indian organizations have concerns around cost, validity, and applicability of existing tools to the Indian context. The document recommends developing low-cost tools to address attrition and map return on investment from recruitment.

1. EVALUATION OF
PSYCHOMETRIC TOOLS
Ankit Amlan
Fieldwork Intern, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

2. Psychological Assessment
Psychological
Assessment
Measurement
Correct/incorrect
item responses
Tests
Not using
correct/
incorrect
responses
Questionnaires
/Inventories
Non-
measurement
Interviews,
observations
etc.
Other
questionnaire
s/ checklists
etc.
•Measurement is the assignment of numbers to properties or attributes of people,
objects or events using a set of rules
•It uses a set of rules to quantify these. They must be standardized, clear, understandable
and easy to apply

3. Core Characteristics of Assessment
Standardized administration
• So that the administration and instructions are the
same for everyone who takes them
A scientific rationale for what is being
measured
An explanation of construction
Use of a large sample to establish norms
or a process for comparison with others
Accuracy and error measures
The dangers of not doing so
• Purchasing an assessment which is
inappropriate for the purpose
required
• Purchasing one which is of poor
quality
• Not understanding how to use the
assessment
• Not administering or scoring the
assessment effectively
• Misusing the test and the
interpretation

4. Types of Measurements
 How well a person performs in a
particular field following instruction
or teaching.
 They range from abstract concepts to
practical knowledge
 Abstract reasoning
 Numerical reasoning
 Musical sensitivity
 Programming aptitude
 Spelling and grammar
 These are the qualities, which are
temporary and can be learnt and
developed over a period of time.
 Includes assessments of personality,
belief, values and interests
 Typical ways of thinking and
behaving, being referred to as
underlying characteristics or traits
 Often assessed by self-report
measures having multiple scales
 The 16 Personality Factor questionnaire
(16PF)
 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 The Occupational Personality
Questionnaire (OPQ)
 These are traits which are generally
permanent in nature in an individual
Measures of maximum
performance Measures of typical performance

5. Scales and Inventories for
Psychological Assessment
Nominal Scales
• Classify people into
categories by
labelling and
• Convenient method
of describing them
as individuals or
groups
• Only a limited
number of
transformations and
statistics can be
conducted on data
Ordinal Scales
• More precise level
of measurement
than nominal scales
and place people in
some kind of
hierarchical order
by assigning
numbers
• The scale is relative
to the set of people
being measured
Interval scales
• Like ordinal scales,
assign numbers to
indicate whether
individuals are less
than, greater than
or equal to each
other, but represent
the difference
between them
• intelligence tests
Ratio Scales
• Highest or ideal
level of
measurement, have
a ‘true’ value of 0,
indicating
• A complete absence
of what is measured
and also possess the
characteristics of an
interval scale
Psychological assessment scores , generally involves measurement on ordinal scales which
enable comparison of an individual with other which is then converted to interval scales for
representation.

6. Design of Personality Questionnaires
Yes – No items
• ‘I have often cried whilst
watching sad films’. Yes – No.
Personal information
• I would rather work:
• a. in a business office,
supervising people
• b. ?
• c. in a library, on my own
True – False items
• ‘People in authority frighten
me’. True – False
Like – Dislike items
• ‘Spiders’. Like – Dislike
Items Having Rating
Scales
• Strongly agree, agree, in-
between, disagree, strongly
disagree
Forced-choice Items
• When you are working, do
you …
• enjoy times when you have to
work hard to meet a
deadline, or
• dislike working under undue
stress, or
• try to plan ahead so that you
don’t work under pressure?

7. Theories of personality
 Types Theory
 Represent distinct groups of
people characterized by a
unique configuration of
features
 Makes it easier to cope with a
complex social world through
labelling personality ‘types’
 They also use rigid labels,
which can be misleading
 MBTI is an example of Type
test
 Trait Theory
 Usually used by psychologists
to study the various traits
possessed by individuals
which results in a particular
behaviour
 They are more
straightforward than types,
and are capable of
measurement
 They form a normally
distributed continuum on a
scale, having a mean score at
the centre
 PI is an example of Trait test

8. Paradigms of Assessment
The Psychodynamic
Paradigm
• Lack scientific rigour
and methods
• Different behaviours
could be indicators
of the same
underlying impulse
The Cognitive-
behavioural
Paradigm
• Our behaviour
defines our
personalities
• Performance of role
models could be
observed and
imitated by others
• Assessments involving
individuals and
situational variables,
making use of
observations, diaries
and interviews
The Trait Paradigm
• Relatively enduring
characteristics
• Independent of any
stimulus external to a
person
• Describes personality
in terms of continuous
scales and an
inventory is made up
of any number of
them

9. The Trait paradigm
 The trait paradigm assumes that:
 Our thoughts, feelings and
behaviours vary in a number of
ways.
 These variations can be
measured.
 When they are measured, they
are normally distributed like
other characteristics.
 Eysenck (1967) suggested there
are three dimensions along which
personality varies:
 • Introversion – Extraversion
 • Neuroticism – Stability
 • Psychoticism – Normality
 These can be rated on a scale of
zero to maximum for the purpose
of rating
 Cattell identified 16 important
dimensions or ‘source traits’ which
later came as 16PF(Personality
Factor)
 In contrast, some inventories
appear to measure more of the
original surface traits, such as the
Occupational Personality
Questionnaire (OPQ)

10. Source Traits 16PF

11. Psychometrics in India
 Psychometric tests are widely used in the US and Europe
 However, psychometric assessments are in a nascent stage in India
 Some of the widely used psychometric tools:
 Thomas profiling
 16PF
 Firo B
 Predictive Index
 DISC
 MBTI
 Personality and Preference Inventory-Normative (PAPI): Used
predominantly used in India for hiring. It is also used for people who
are in the system with up to 2 years of experience
 SHL: competency tool for India
 The Hay Group's psychometric tool

12. Purpose of the tests
Recruitment and selection
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) and Preference Inventory-
Normative (PAPI) are used in
India predominantly for hiring
Learning and development
Competency mapping
Performance appraisal
Validation of Interviews
55%
9%
18%
18%
Percentage of usage
Fresher level
Lateral hiring
Managerial level
Senior level
•In IT companies, psychometric assessments are
used for entry level
•In campus hiring psychometric tools are not
used, because of the costs and the time
•At the senior level psychometric tests are used
to check the technical knowledge of the person
in a domain.

13. Recruitment and Selection
 Psychometric tests are used in the hiring process as
a validation tool for interviews and are therefore
often administered after interviewing
 Psychometric tests don't come cheap
 Last round of interviewing
 In some cases, when not validation but, elimination is
a motive, psychometric tests are used before
interviewing

14. Study of different existing
Psychometric tests
 MBTI
 SHL CEB
 DDI
 Predictive Index (PI)
 Hogan

15. MBTI (Myers- Briggs Type Indicator)
 Developed by Briggs Myer’s out
of the theories of Carl Jung, to
describe 16 personality types
based on the 4 dichotomies:
 Extraversion – Introversion
 Sensing – Intuition
 Thinking – Feeling
 Judging – Perceiving
 Used in areas of pedagogy,
team building, leadership
training, executive coaching
 89 of the Fortune 100 companies
use it.
 Statistical Validity of this method
is questionable. Origins from
psychoanalysis and hence,
speculative
 The 16 outcomes appear to
represent ‘pure’ types and it is
unlikely people will be purely
one of them. People can be
extroverted in some situations
and introverted at others; they
may be capable of both
objective and subjective thought
 Doesn’t include any assessment of
test-takers’ attitudes, so
conclusions can be distorted

16. SHL – OPQ32 (Occupational
Personality Questionnaire)
 SHL’s Occupational Personality questionnaires provides
an indication of an individual’s preferred behavioural
style at work
 Developed out of Item response theory containing
forced choices method of questionnaires having 32
personality traits being measured in terms of their
dominance
 Used in selection, career development, team building
etc.
 SHL is one of the few providers of cognitive ability tests

17. Predictive Index (PI)
 Skill and behaviour
assessment test used by many
organizations
 Originally a Trait type of test
based on the Humanistic
Psychology of human drives
 It measures four drives in
Humans:
 Drive for Dominance
 Drive for Extroversion
 Drive for Patience
 Drive for Formality
 Using these drives, there are
selection based questionnaires
on “What people expect of
us to do” and “What we
actually do”.
 Using the answers of the
question leads to the mapping
of data on the basis of self,
self concept and synthesis,
which is represented
graphically.
 Actively used worldwide by
major corporate giants for
recruitment, leadership
development and career-
planning.

18. DDI (Development Dimensions
International)
 DDI’s pre- employment
testing is a direct test
which includes both
normative and ipsative
test manuals.
 Multiple and repetitive
questions ensure
accuracy and validity of
traits.
 Eliminates the guesswork
and helps in making the
best decisions
• Candidates with higher scores are top
performers
Better Hiring Decisions
• Can quickly zero-in on the most
eligible candidate
Greater Process efficiency
• Results pin-point candidates who are
more likely to engaged and stay
longer
Most Eligible Candidate
• Gives a very larger picture of the
personality
• Can be used for testing data and
career development
Complete picture

19. India Inc.
More than 50%
Organizations used,
explored or
considered
psychometric tests
Could increase to
87% by 2016
More than 90% of
the companies
which have adopted
it, use it across all
verticals
However a large number of organizations, consider psychometric
tools but don’t use the tools for reasons such as
Cost
Lack of knowledge in the domain
Validity and reliability of these tools
Selling psychometric tests to top management
Lack of statistics showing value for money
Reluctance of senior job applicants to fill out a test

20. Expectations of the Indian
Organizations
• Provide differences in candidates
• A test that can be used more often, on a large
number of people, which is less costly
• Clear on what the company is hiring for -
competency framework for the company
• Tools specific to Indian environment
• Flexibility of an online system and cost
effectiveness
• A tool to provide specific training assessment
and feedback
• A tool which can address the issues of attrition
by mapping employee traits

21. Recommendation
 Development of tools to address the menace of attrition
should be prepared. Interviewing is not enough to
gauge the factors of attrition. Implementing a
psychometric screening tool that can predict and reduce
attrition in addition to the selecting methods
 A system to provide a low cost psychometric tool
covering all the aspects
 Successful implementation of psychometric tools other
than recruitment, for competency mapping
 There should be a tool which can map the ROI for
recruitment