EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
Objectivity is more readily attainable in tests for routine
work and for ability to learn than for measures of social
characteristics and such intangible abilities as resourcefulness
and originality. It is not contended that employment
procedure can dispense with subjective estimates and impressions,
particularly with reference to the typical emotional
tendencies which are grouped under the broad categories
of personality and character. It is maintained, however,
that wherever objective measures can be made, they
are more uniform and dependable. Such measures of a
person’s likes and dislikes and of his tact, energy, selicontrol,
and honesty in selected situations, are conceivable.
Reliability. Measures must be not only objective but
reliable. Thus, an interviewer who has asked an applicant
about her training and experience can make a subjective
estimate of her probable ability to learn to operate a comptometer.
If, knowing that she must have some arithmetical
ability, he gives her some problems to do, he gets an objective
measure of that ability, but not a very reliable one
unless the problems have been well selected, previously
graded as to difficulty, timed, and standardized. An Edison
questionnaire may be an objective measure of range of information,
but it is certainly a very unreliable one. What
are the characteristics of a test which is at once objective
and reliable?
A reliable test when repeated on a representative group
of people after a period in which they have had equal practice
in the ability (or no practice) should yield measures
which preserve the same relationships between them. In
other words, the test correlates highly with itself. Moreover,
the measurements obtained with it by different examiners
are the same, provided they adhere strictly to a uniform
procedure. Of course, if one examiner varies from the
standard practice by giving more specific instructions to the
applicant or by allowing him more time to work on the test,
the results cannot be compared with those obtained by other
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