Psychological Testing in the Workplace

2006 Words9 Pages
Psychological Testing in the Workplace PSY/435 November 24, 2011 Psychological Testing in the Workplace In the competitive and ever changing world of business employers are constantly on the lookout for an edge in their industry. The use of pre employment and employment testing can give a company the edge they need to stay competitive. The need for stability and consistency throughout the employment and pre employment process has created a need for testing to ensure the best possible result. Testing in the workplace serves many purposes such as weeding out potential criminal behavior, job assignment preferences, and longevity of a potential employee. In this paper we will examine three types of testing, the validity and reliability of these tests, and the ethical and legal issues associated with the use of such testing. Types of Psychological Testing Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) The Meyers Briggs Type Indicator was created by Isabelle Meyers and maintained as a work in progress until her death in 1980. Since that time there have been revisions to the assessment, most recently the M series. The MBTI is a forced choice assessment based on the psychological types of Carl Jung. It utilizes four standard concepts of determination extroversion and introversion, intuition, thinking and judgment that are broken down into a four letter code that determines the preferences of the individual with regard to the four basic concepts (Geyer, 2011). The MBTI is generally used as career indicator; more specifically it helps to determine if an individual has the characteristics, personality traits and preferences needed to be a success in an employment position. Typically the MBTI is used as pre employment assessment tool; although it has been used with success in assessing advancement and cross training probabilities as well as team compositions (Geyer,
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