1st Edition
From Obscurity to Clarity in Psychometric Testing Selected works of Professor Peter Saville
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.
Foreword. Introduction. Contributors. PART I: THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHOMETRICS 1. What’s It All about? 2. Intelligence Testing. PART II: CONSTRUCTING PSYCHOMETRICS 3. The ‘Traditional’ Approach 4. Reflections on the Development of an Inductive Work-Based Questionnaire – the OPQ® 5. Validating Personality Questionnaires 6. Development of a Validity-Centric Work-Based Questionnaire – Saville Consulting Wave® 7. Long versus Short Scales 8. Normative & Forced-Choice Scales. PART III: PRACTICALITIES OF PSYCHOMETRICS 9. Do Assessments Work? 10. Applications of Assessments 11. The Issue of Cheating 12. Acceptability, Cost-Benefit & Decision Making
Biography
Professor Peter Saville, BA, MPhil, PhD, HonFBPsS, C.Psychol, CSci, Academic FCIPD, FRSA, FIoD – Founder, SHL & Founder, Saville Consulting; Visiting Professor, Kingston Business School.
Tom Hopton, MA Hons (Oxon), MBPsS, CPsychol.– Principal Consultant, Saville Consulting, A Towers Watson Company; Visiting Fellow, Kingston Business School.
Professor Peter Saville’s creativity, ingenuity, and profound impact on the field of applied psychology are reflected time and time again in the present volume; which provides an indispensable and much needed link between research and practice. For both the seasoned or budding applied psychologist, this volume constitutes essential reading. Duncan J. R. Jackson, Birkbeck, University of London
