Psychometric Test vs Personality Test
A psychometric vs personality test is a tool to scientifically and objectively evaluate an individual’s abilities, aptitudes and reasoning skills. A psychometric test can have multiple purposes, one of them being the measurement of personality. Personality tests on the other hand, evaluates an individual’s personality traits, their behavioral tendencies, how they act an react in situations, how they handle pressure and stress and whether they work well on their own or in teams. Both tests can be used to evaluate professionals, their strengths and weaknesses to enable them to perform more effectively at the workplace. It can be used during selection, training evaluation, career mapping and so on.
Importance of Honesty in Psychometric Tests
A psychometric test does not require preparation since it measures the innate facets of people. Some people may answer questions in a way they seem more socially desirable, hence the social desirability score indicates whether the individual has answered honestly or in ways that make them look more appealing. If one wants to benefit from the results and constructive feedback from any psychometric test, they need to be as honest as possible while taking the test.
Purpose and Types of Psychometric Tests
Psychometric tests come in various forms, from questionnaires that have objective or descriptive answers to situational questions that assess the subjective experience. Reasoning tests, language proficiency tests, and other technical or cognitive abilities are commonly used by organizations during selection and training processes.
The Role of Personality Tests
A personality test focuses on the personality of the individual being tests and their social interactions. It is largely useful in the organizational context since it distinguishes whether a person has the potential to be a leader and whether they are a team player or someone who thrives on their own. It also gives a definitive picture of how a person will react in certain situations and of their social skills.
Handling Pressure and Stress
Some people are better suited to handling high pressure situations than others, personality tests given an insight on whether a person can handle high levels of stress or whether they will thrive better in a job that presents less stressful situations. DiSC assessments and the Big Five profile are personality tests that are widely being used in organizations, this helps map the workings styles of professionals, improve teamwork and identify development areas.
Reliability and Validity of Psychometric Tests
Psychometric tests, including personality tests, must be reliable and valid. This means that they must be proven to give stable results in variety of situations involving the same individual and measure what they set out to measure. Once these two factors are present, they can be used for multiple purposes like selection, training, career mapping organization development and so on.
Application of Psychometric Tests in Organizations
Usually, the executive level employees are subject to psychometric test that are not personality tests since they mainly measure the abilities and skills whereas leaders are subject to personality tests since soft skills and personality play a larger role in the performance of their roles and responsibilities. Organizations are increasingly investing in psychometric vs personality test including personality tests as they have proven to measure the factors that directly influence the performance of professionals.
