Free Essay

Individual Differences

In: Business and Management

Submitted By mamadsakho
Words 547
Pages 3
Introduction
People differ in their behaviors. Individual differences psychology is the science of such differences Psychometrics is the science of measuring psychological individual differences In your managerial life, you will have, directly or indirectly (e.g. through recruitment consultants, assessment centers), to rely on psychometric tools, to assess skills, personality, intelligence, creativity, performance, stress, etc. How do you choose to rely on one tool instead of another?

2012

Psychometric qualities
3 basic qualities :sensitivity, reliability and validity How to get this information? buy, so do ask for it.

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Sensitivity
Also called discrimination If we intend to measure individual differences, then the test has to make it possible to differentiate people Examples: the test is too hard (everybody failed) or too easy/obvious (everybody succeeded) rule : always remember what you want to use the test for (e.g. : selecting only the 10% best, eliminating the 50% less skilled, etc.)

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GOOD SENSITIVITY individual differences observed -­‐> we can differentiate the shooters

John

Paul

Ringo

BAD SENSITIVITY no individual differences observed -­‐> we differentiate the shooters

John

Paul

Ringo

Reliability (1)
Reliability can be considered as stability A test has to be able to be stable against possible sources of random error (differences between correctors, between days, etc.)

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GOOD FIDELITY Each time John shoots at this target, he gets the same result -­‐> we can rely on only one result

BAD FIDELITY Each time John shoots at this target, he gets very different results -­‐> we cannot rely on only one result

Reliability (2)
-­‐retest method. A correlation is calculated between the test and the retest (the same test taken by the same individual, some days later, usually one week). The test and the retest should be highly and positively correlated (r>.70). Inter-­‐rater/judge/corrector reliability : Judge agreement method. We ask 2 or more judges/correctors/raters to rate the same sample. A correlation is calculated between the raters/judges/correctors. The ratings of the judges should be highly and positively correlated (r>.70).

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Reliability (3)
Internal consistency : if the result of a test is one score (usually it is a sum), all items should measure the same dimension coherence (measured by Alpha, values should be above .70)

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Validity
Is the test fullfilling its objective? ex: The test is intended to predict your future job performance, is it really doing so? Method: the test is passed along with other measures of the same dimension (e.g. here direct performance measures), that are called convergent external criteria. The correlation between the test and the convergent criterion should be as high as possible (r above .40)

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GOOD VALIDITY the observed results help us predict/recognize the quality of the archer

John (world champion archer)

Paul (average archer)

Ringo (awarder worst archer in the world)

the observed results

BAD VALIDITY help us predict/recognize the quality of the archer

John (world champion archer)

Paul (average archer)

Ringo (awarder worst archer in the world)

Conclusion
Tests can mislead your decisions if they are not psychometrically robust.

business. Often, scientific data is replaced by beautiful eye-­‐candy commercial graphics and/or new age guru stuff the game of officially supporting tests without carrying proper scientific examination Conclusion : you should only trust evidence (in numbers, not in prestigious names)

2012

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