One of the "FAQs" that I get through e-mail:

Q: "I just failed the psychological exam to become a police officer [or other job requiring psychological screening]. What are they looking for? Can you give me tips to pass it the next time?"

A: "Employment screening is usually based on careful research. There are certain personality characteristics that predict that an individual with be happy and effective at certain jobs. First, consider whether this is the right career for you. A session of career counseling and testing could give valuable insight in this regard. If you're sure that this is what you want to do, consider applying in less competitive areas, or in closely related careers."

"Oh, and to directly answer your question -- it would be unethical for me to give 'tips' to change your score on a psychological exam. Doing so would render the test invalid. That is, it would no longer measure what it is intended to measure."

Here's a phenomenon that's long intrigued me. The page on my website (www.PsychologicalTesting.com) that gets the most visits is not the homepage, not by a longshot. The homepage is the red line above. I get the most hits (hundreds per day) at iqtest.htm, my page about IQ testing, shown by the blue line above. There are far more searches, and apparently there is far more public interest, in IQ tests than in psychological testing in general. I wonder why the fascination? Maybe people see IQ as more important than other traits that tests measure. There are several high IQ societies, but no high extroversion societies.

Welcome to the Psychological Testing BlogSpot

Welcome to the Psychological Testing blog - the blogspot for my website, PsychologicalTesting.com. This is the place to:

• Ask questions about psychological testing (who does it, what can it do, what tests should be give to assess a certain condition, etc.)
• Discuss controversies (Is IQ genetic and does it differ across racial groups? Are inkblot tests valid?)
• Discuss technical issues (what is test validity, standard error, IRT?)

... or to discuss any other issue related to psychological testing. Have fun!