The Evolution of Psychometric Testing

It’s the second round of your interview. You are handed a pencil and a ten page Q&A. The HR person tells you that after the completion of this ‘Psychometric Test’, you will proceed for the final interview. You sit there perplexed at the eternal questions that sound almost the same everywhere and wonder, ‘how exactly will this matter in my interview shortlisting?’.

Now, that’s a question millions of interviewees have been wondering. The answer is simple. Psychometric tests are used in job interviews to discover who you are and how good you will be at tasks required in the job. There is no right or wrong answer in a psychometric test.

What is Psychometric Testing? How did it evolve?

Psychometrics, in short, means the measurement of the mind. Thus, psychometric testing broadly refers the test to measure how our brain works and then provide a determinable measurement of our mental ability.

The Evolution

The use of psychometric as a science traces back to the late 19th century in Cambridge, between 1886 and 1889. The first laboratory dedicated to the science of psychometric test was set up in 1887 by James McKeen Cattell within the Cavendish Physics Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

However, the first personality testing only began in 1917 when Robert Woodworth developed the Personal Data Sheet, a simple yes-no checklist of symptoms that were used to screen the World War I recruits for psychoneurosis. This sheet paved the way for other inventions like Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Many later inventories. Then in the 1950s and 60s, the “Big Five” personality test was devised after a thorough analytical research to measure individual differences in personality which to this day remains a well-recognised personality traits model.