Explain why psychological testing is important and the types of decisions made using psychological tests. Provide two examples of each type of decision.
What will be an ideal response?
• Why psychological testing is important:
o Psychological testing is important because people use test results to make important decision and these decisions affect many people.
o Some of the decisions made by college faculty, industrial and organizational psychology practitioners, and organizational leaders include (a) what grade to award a student, (b) whether to hire a job candidate, (c) whether an employee will receive a merit increase (and if so, how much), and (d) what coaching advice to offer a business leader.
o Some of the decisions others have made about us, or our families, based on psychological test scores include (a) whether to admit us or our children to specific colleges, (b) whether to invite our children to participate in elementary school gifted programs, (c), what grades to award our children, and (d) whether our children will receive college scholarships.
• Individual and institutional decisions:
o Both individuals and institutions use the results of psychological tests to make decisions.
o If test takers use their test scores to make decisions about themselves, these are referred to as individual decisions.
o Institutional decisions are those made by another entity (e.g., a company, an organization, an institution) about an individual based on his or her test results.
o When institutions use test scores to make decisions about those who took a test, they do so using either a comparative method or an absolute method.
• Comparative and absolute decisions:
o When institutions use test scores to make decisions about those who took a test, they do so using either a comparative or absolute method.
o Comparative decisions are made by comparing the test scores of a number of people to see who has the best score.
o Absolute decisions are decisions made by others (institutions) by looking at who has the minimum score needed to qualify.
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