Question

How did psychological testing become so prevalent in modern society? What exactly do intelligence tests measure? What can they predict?

Answer 1

• "Testing people at work" explains "People are different. Some are intelligent, whilst others are slow-witted. Some are warm hearted, whilst others are cold-blooded. Some are motivated by money, whilst others are motivated by ideas. Jobs differ too. Some jobs require slow-witted, cold blooded people who are motivated by money. The task is to measure peoples characteristics in some way, so that these characteristics can be matched to the requirements of the job"
• Greater competition for talented employees has made organizations more aware that recruitment and selection are key functions of human resource management (HRM) which is why psychological testing has become prevalent in organizations as well and not just limited to clinical use and diagnosing mental disorders.
• Psychometric tests-which gauge a person's personality, aptitude or intelligence-are recognized as good predictors of job performance. Personality tests, for example, deliver a general view of an individual's habits, attitudes and values.
• Its prevalence is huge today in counseling,schools,organizations and not just restricted to clinical use.
• The tests used most frequently by counseling psychologists include objective and projective personality tests, individually administered tests of cognitive functioning, vocational interest tests, and brief scales to assess specific symptomology. The specific assessment procedures used by counseling psychologists vary somewhat as a function of the setting, client characteristics, and reason for seeking services.
• Projective techniques are used with greater frequency in psychiatric settings whereas interest, aptitude, and objective personality tests are used more frequently in counseling and community mental health centers.
• Some tests are designed for use with specific age ranges, so counseling psychologists who work with adult clients use tests that are different from the tests used by those who work with children and adolescents.
• Standardized intelligence testing has been called one of psychology's greatest successes. It is certainly one of the field's most persistent and widely used inventions.
• The IQ test consists of a number of tasks measuring various measures of intelligence including short-term memory, analytical thinking, mathematical ability and spatial recognition. It measures the person's ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
• IQ doesn’t measure a person’s general knowledge of facts and figures, like whether they know the capital of Russia. It’s meant to measure intelligence functions like problem-solving skills, pattern recognition, mathematical logic, and finding connections among verbal concepts.
• IQ is a very good predictor of life success in complex modern societies, challenged in its power only by trait conscientiousness, one of the Big Five personality traits, which is composed of orderliness and industriousness, the latter of which is likely more predictive.
• IQ is strange in that it predicts nothing, but is correlated with all sorts of stuff. Examples include higher income, better school/job performance, health, liberalism and atheism.