From Obscurity to Clarity in Psychometric Testing

Book excerpt: The field of psychometrics has a long and varied tradition across the social sciences. A range of academics have sought to understand human consciousness more fully by statistical testing our abilities, personalities, attitudes and beliefs. But perhaps the area where psychometric techniques have had most impact on contemporary society is in employee recruitment, where a range of psychometric tests have become common-place. Professor Peter Saville is one of the pioneers of adapting psychometric testing to the field of occupational psychology and human resource management. In a career of nearly 40 years, his work has been adopted by hundreds of public and private organizations, assessing the suitability of prospective candidates through a range of questionnaires and tests. In this anthology of his work, including both keynote conference address and journal papers, Saville provides a masterly overview of the field of psychometrics, and the key issues and questions that it raises. An ideal companion for any student or researcher of HRM, occupational or organizational psychology, or applied psychology in general, Peter Saville’s selected works represent the thinking of one of the most influential psychologists of our time.