A psychometric test is a measure of a psychological construct (such as personality or aptitude) that has been constructed according to psychometric principles. In addition, the test should be administered, scored and interpreted in a standardised manner. Psychometric principles means that the test was developed in the following manner:
-
Constructed according to a valid theoretical rationale
-
Items (questions) developed on the basis of that rationale and in order to assess the construct the test purports to measure
-
Trialling of items
-
Analysis of the items for reliability and other statistical properties
-
Refinement of the items on the basis of the analysis
-
Re-trialling of the items
-
Further analysis and retrialling as necessary to provide a reliable scale
-
Validation research to ensure that the test constructs measure what they purport to measure and to assess whether the test can also predict meaningful outcomes such as performance
-
Standardisation and development of a norm group for comparative purposes
-
Writing up of all of the above in the test’s technical manual.
