Online Psychometric Testing by Paul Newton

It is becoming increasingly common for organisations to use the internet to deliver personality tests and aptitude tests. This approach has distinct advantages over paper-and-pencil tests:

1. There is no need to print and distribute printed material. This advantage has implications for the convenience of test administration, the security of test materials and for environmental protection.

2. Because the tests are fully automated, they are more standardized in terms of test instructions and time-keeping.

3. Scores can be calculated immediately, with human error eliminated and much time saved, especially in complicated-to-score tests and inventories.

4. Scores may be automatically and easily added to a test’s database to adjust norms. This saves considerable expense in terms of labour costs and adds to the reliability of the employment aptitude test.

5. Test-takers have the advantage of receiving immediate, objective, expert-based narrative feedback of their test findings. Moreover, if a complicated inventory or test battery is administered, a comprehensive, automated evaluation may be provided instantly, as well.

The disadvantages of online psychometric testing are limited to whether or not it disadvantages the less computer literate and whether there are any security implications. The first of these issues can easily be addresses by appropriate design of the tests and by giving all of the candidates the opportunity to practise before the test. The second issue, which is concerned with whether someone else is taking the test, is a real concern. Usually however, it is only initial screening tests that are done remotely (i.e. the candidate logs into the test system from their own PC) and any testing beyond this screening stage will take place at the organisations offices or at an assessment centre.

There is however one very serious issue with online personality testing. Side by side with the professionally developed tests used by the market leaders in psychometric testing, dozens of quasi-psychological tests have been published on the Internet in different diagnostic areas: intelligence and special aptitudes, personality traits, emotional states, attitudes and attitude sets, interpersonal and social behaviour dispositions, vocational interests and preferences, and more. Internet users can take many of these tests for free and receive immediate feedback.

Unfortunately, it is much easier to produce a slick-looking on-line test than it is to produce one which is valid and reliable.

Validity refers to the ability of a test to predict someone’s performance on something. For example, before actually using a test to predict whether someone will be successful at a particular job, you would first want to determine whether persons already doing well at that job.

Reliability refers to the tests ability to give consistent results. For example, a mathematics test might be very reliable because your ability to do math does not change from one day to the next. But a personality test that asks ambiguous questions which you answer just according to how you feel may say one thing about you today and another thing about you next week.

Many of the personality tests currently on-line, including the most widely used ones, lack any kind of credible psychological foundation or satisfactory psychometric properties. This means that you should be very wary of making career decisions on the basis of any online test, whether free or paid for, unless you are absolutely convinced of its validity and reliability.


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