Yesterday I was watching a program from the UK which fights for consumer rights. A segment of the program was reporting on a sofa that was not fit for purpose and this led my mind back to psychometrics. We’re always looking for easy ways to define some of the more techical aspects of psychometrics and this was a good example!
The sofa looked absolutely fine. In fact, it was beautiful leather and looked very expensive. To relate this back to psychometric testing we could say it had FACE VALIDITY. The sofa looked as if it would do the job it is supposed to do (on the face of it). Likewise, a test, be it personality or aptitude, which looks like it will do the job it is supposed to do is said to have face validity. We assess face validity simply by looking at the test. However, face validity is not very important in the grand scheme of things! It’s important for candidate buy-in of course. If you are given a test as part of a selection process and that test doesn’t seem relevant to the job you won’t be happy with the process and may not take it or the company too seriously!!
The sofa, despite looking great, had some major problems. The first time its owner sat on it, it fell apart. There were lots of flaws in the design and so on. Likewise, some of us may have experienced similar examples with second-hand cars. They may look excellent on the face of it, but then they break down on the way home! In other words, the sofa or the car are not FIT FOR PURPOSE. This is a major problem. You use psychometric tests to help discriminate between candidates and to help you select the best. If there is something fundamentally wrong with the design of the test that causes any problems, then the test will not be fit for purpose. It will not be valid, even if it has face validity.
It’s for this reason that it’s not a good idea to ask a test supplier for a free trial to “validate the test” as some of our clients ask! Often this is similar to a second-hand car buying looking at the paintwork on the car and ignoring the mechanics because they know little about them.
If you are interested in learning how to evaluate the “mechanics” of the many psychometric tests out there and knowing how to choose good from bad based on critical information, please consider attending either our face-to-face psychometric training courses in Singapore and Hong Kong or joining our live online or distance learning in psychometrics. Full details here: http://www.psychometricassessment.com/psychometric_training_courses.php
