Psychometric testing refers to the process of measuring a candidate's relevant strengths and weaknesses. This form of measurement is primarily employed to assess employment suitability, including company-candidate fit.
Companies actually rely on this instrument to measure the soft skills of a candidate apart from interviewing. Hence, results shown to some extent, this instrument is reliable in determining the traits, attitudinal, behavioural aspects of a person.
Actually, a psychometric tool measures what the designer wants to measure according to the theoretical model he used. We must first ensure that a tool measuring "interest in reading" (or anything else) was built in reference to a valid model of this variable. Second, you are asking to which extent a psychological measure can reflect a psychological variable (interest in reading or any others psychological variables like personality...). What you want to know here is to which extent this measurment tool provides a valid measure. Actually, your question is a psychometric question and you want to ensure that your tool provides a valid and reliable measure. There are a number of handbooks on these issues, you can read: Allen, M. J., & Yen, W. M. (2002). Introduction to Measurement Theory. Waveland Press Inc: Longrove, USA.
The answer lies in what our colleague Raphael Trouillet presents. Allow me to add my thoughts on the subject by stressing the need for careful item design. As far as I am concerned a psychometric tool is as good as the concepts hidden behind each item / question. To this end, a THESAURUS is absolutely vital - you can experience this in the ARISTON series of tests (ww.aristontest.eu).
Many tests are designed to measure a particular ability or skill, for example: numeracy, verbal, spatial, abstract reasoning, analytical skills. Aptitude tests identify your potential to learn rather than your current potential.
https://www.racc.ac.uk/files/pdfs/Student_Guide_to_Psychometric_tests.pdf
Just an observation - I cannot tell whether these tests are truly reliable - I have however seen the way they are used in the private sector (which nowadays extensively makes use of tests like the "Caliper" test and others.)
These tests are primarily used as a 'CYA' device, in other words as a means of deflecting responsibility in case a hire does not work out.
In the old ways, some manager would be held accountable if some new hire did not pan out, and the manager in charge of having hired the new employee would be at risk of being fired, (wrong hires are very very expensive to a company).These tests were thought up as a means of deflecting accountability and risk, and that's the way they are mostly marketed towards HR departments as well. They might work as well, but from my observation that's almost a secondary consideration....
My Dear Syamsul Fozy Osman; It is a tool being used by many employers to evaluate the candidate for his fitness with the aims of company. Yes it is reliable to a higher degree but the instrument used should also be appropriate to assess a desire person. It can also reflect the interest of a person for reading too. YES.
Thanks
Just a word maybe in terms of 'interest in reading': in English at least, the answer is yes - there are very many seldom-used words in English, and you can build a table of words which crop up every 10th book, every 100th book, every 1000th book etc. on average (such tables exist, but you might want to build your own, since they're inherently skewed. If you're a sloyd buff, you'll know what a snedding saw is, if you're into Gothic, you'll know what a lich is, if you're into agriculture history, you'll know what a snath is, and so on).
So by asking applicants (via a multiple choice questionnaire) the meaning of certain words (filtering them first for similar words in other languages the candidate may be familiar with) you can have a pretty good picture of whether they're well read, and even what their hobbies are. I remember words like 'hoyden' being used in such tests.
You can use https://books.google.com/ngrams to build your own table of seldom-used words within an array of frequency metrics
Dear Chris,
Many thanks for sharing the fine opportunities of Ngram Viewer. I have tried it and it worked excellently. However, I could not copy the gained charts. Do you know how one can copy ngram charts into word documents?
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