Understanding the Psychology behind Psychometric Testing

We are often asked how a simple questionnaire on a personality or psychometric testing application can give such precise results and offer such accurate insight into how an individual may behave in particular situations.  

A response from a recent session involving 100 under 18’s yielded this response from the group leader: “I think we all found it quite spooky how accurate the profiles were.  In fact, a number of the young people commented that they thought you must have been spying on them or had asked the teachers to comment as their profiles were so like them. Just goes to show how good the programme is.”

What is a Psychometric Test?

The definition of 'psychometric' combines the words 'psyche' meaning 'mind', as well as the word 'meter' meaning 'measure'. Therefore, Psychometrics in short means the measurement of the mind. Psychometric Testing is a way of measuring an individual’s mental capabilities and behavioural style.