Psychometric assessment Essay

Certain people persist to be such(prenominal)(prenominal) obedient than early(a)s. Individuals who have the listency to adopt a submissive, uncritical perspective toward authority figures authoritarian submission (Adorno, 1950) tends to effect tasks when demanded. Also, people with an external locale of control (a sense that fate rules their life rather than their own actions) tend to be more obedient. However, despite the popular myth that women atomic number 18 more submissive, women and men ar relatively equal in the degree to which they ordain obey demands (Eagly & Carli, 1981).Dehumanisation or deindividuation is the loss of the sense of case-by-case individuality and control over our behaviour. Sensory overload, arousal, anonymity, and reduced self awareness are key factors which loosen inhibitions and thus uncharacteristic behaviour is not inline with frequent internal standards. According to deindividuation theory, the psychological state of deindividuation is aro utilize when individuals join crowds or large chemical groups. The state is characterized by diminished awareness of self and individuality.This in turn reduces an individuals self-restraint and normative regulation of behaviour. In social psychology, deindividuation is a major theory of group behaviour it provides an story of collective behaviour of violent crowds, mindless hooligans, and the lynch mob. In addition, deindividuation has been associated with other social phenomena such as genocide, stereotyping, and disinhibition in other settings such as com strayer-mediated communication. Several influential studies were conducted to illustrate the force of deindividuation.For example, Zimbardo (1969) carried out a contract that inspired much subsequent deindividuation research. In this study, actors were rendered anonymous by enclothe them in oversized lab coats and hoods, compared with normal clothes and name tags in the control condition. The participants task was to s hock a confederate in a situation similar to the classic Milgram studies on obedience. In a initiative experiment apply groups of female students, Zimbardo demonstrated that anonymous participants shocked monthlong (and thitherfore more painfully) than identifiable participants, in confirmation of his theory.Another theater of controversy in psychology is the area of psychometric exam, which aim to exact important decisions affecting individuals and society. Tests are employ in a variation of settings to aid selection in education and work and for diagnosis for those with instruction and psychological problems. Ability samples were amongst the first psychometric tests to be developed, and controversy has adjoin their use since. Binet and Simon (1905) were commissioned by the French government to find a method to differentiate between children who were intellectually normal and those who were inferior.The purpose was to put the latter into special schools where they would receive more individual attention. In this expressive style the disruption they caused in the education of intellectually normal children could be avoided. This guide to the development of the Binet-Simon Scale, and constituted a revolutionary approach to the assessment of individual mental ability. Revisions to the Binet-Simon Scale resulted in the thought of mental age, an good understandable concept which significantly increased the popularity of ability testing.Further developments of the tests traind the concept of light quotient (IQ) and resulted in one of the currently most widely used tests, the Stanford Binet Scale. Most watchword tests measure the general reasoning ability that is concern in many different types of problem solving behaviour. Older types of tests referred to this intelligence factor as general ability, whereas more recent tests have tended to divorce the general ability into fluid intelligence (innate and not particularly influenced by ones environ ment) and crystallised intelligence (underlying fluid intelligence that is a product of environmental experiences.In recent years, the introduction of the eleven sum exam, which is largely compiled of IQ tests, was used to distinguish those who would proceed to grammar school and those who would be relegated to academically inferior secondary schools. Research into the psychometric assessment of intelligence has been the focus of many eminent psychologists including Spearmen, Burt, Eysenck, and Cattell. The latter two also went on further to develop (separate) personality tests, Cattells 16PF in 1970, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) in 1975.These involve analysing a series of trivial yes/no questions in an start out to decipher the nature and character of the person answering them. Today, personality assessments are mainly used in clinical settings, with their use in line of merchandiseal settings increasing. They may also be used in educational settings in asses sing individuals with learning problems and are still widely used and developed at bottom academic and research settings. Personality tests are also widely used today within the work environment, perhaps for deciding whether to employ mortal or not, or even to decide who gets made redundant.On the whole, psychometric tests have acceptable validity and therefore make them less habituated to error than other types of assessment. The interpretation of psychometric data requires the use of norms, against which the rack up of a particular individual can be compared. Psychometric assessments tend to be the only measures for which norms are available. Psychometric tests are intermediately short and therefore time and cost efficient. Many are group tests, and so can be given to a number of people at the same time.In fact the development of computer programmes concerned with psychometric testing means that tests can be administered and scored by a computer, modify results to be made av ailable quickly and can form the tush of a discussion. Personality tests are particularly cost efficient as they prevent money being wasted on training mismated personnel. However, there can be an undue reliance on the results of psychometric tests. Simply discovering that a person has an aptitude for a particular occupation does not guarantee that they will be successful at that job.The mystique of psychometric test results means that they are frequently not discussed with those who complete them. In this sense there is a failure to use psychological testing humanely. Test scores can also be misused. The results of tests should not be used to withhold educational or occupational opportunities from those who may perform less well on tests of ability due to factors that have flyspeck to do with intelligence. In any instance, the results can be faked by the participant to influence the results in their favour, and so can be unknowingly misinterpreted anyway.Because of the viscidne ss and predictive success of many psychometric tests, there may be a failure to use other important instruction. Psychometric test results should ideally be used alongside other reliable information about a person, otherwise they may wrongly stereotype an individual. Furthermore, there are many ethnical and sub-cultural issues that can arise when measuring IQ, which causes much controversy. At the extreme, IQ tests were used to keep out certain immigrant groups from the joined States during the 1920s.Jenson (1969) suggested that genetic differences were the cause of consistently lower IQ scores discover in non white racial groups. Recent controversies relate to the systematic differences reach by different groups in society. Critics say these are the results of warp in test items. Typical examples relate to previously learned information and items using verbal information, typically English, which require reading and writing. Even when tests are translated to the essential lang uage of the participants, questions are still raised over the cultural equation of certain items (Zindi, 1994).Even tests which explicitly attempt to be close fair have been questioned. The Ravens Progressive Matrices test showed that the performance of Asian immigrants has been found to improve over a five year design by an average of 15-20 points, which demonstrates that minorities will be disadvantaged in taking them until they learn different ways of approaching them (Roth, 1990). In 1972, Williams produced the Black reasoned Test of Cultural Homogeneity (BITCH) in an attempt to highlight cultural biases in test items, which was heavily loaded towards dingy minorities.Using this test, it is black people who tend to score higher than whites. Particularly in IQ tests that use visual cues, participants may misinterpret an action, and their own cultural biases produce expectations which can alter what they see. They may use methods derived from an alien culture (emics/etics) a nd may have a hostile reception which will bias their observations. Observations are made of a sample and may not be typical of the whole culture being studies. It is also wrong to sound off a culture as being a homogenous group of people differences within a culture may be as large as those between cultures.