Aptitude and vocational testing.

The History of Personnel and Vocational Testing

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.731 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael J. Zickar

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

World War I ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

Reliability And Validity ◽

The United States ◽

Us Military ◽

Technological Advances ◽

The Us ◽

History Of ◽

Vocational Testing

Personnel and vocational testing has made a huge impact in public and private organizations by helping organizations choose the best employees for a particular job (personnel testing) and helping individuals choose occupations for which they are best suited (vocational testing). The history of personnel and vocational testing is one in which scientific advances were influenced by historical and technological developments. The first systematic efforts at personnel and vocational testing began during World War I when the US military needed techniques to sort through a large number of applicants in a short amount of time. Techniques of psychological testing had just begun to be developed at around the turn of the 20th century and those techniques were quickly applied to the US military effort. After the war, intelligence and personality tests were used by business organizations to help choose applicants most likely to succeed in their organizations. In addition, when the Great Depression occurred, vocational interest tests were used by government organizations to help the unemployed choose occupations that they might best succeed in. The development of personnel and vocational tests was greatly influenced by the developing techniques of psychometric theory as well as general statistical theory. From the 1930s onward, significant advances in reliability and validity theory provided a framework for test developers to be able to develop tests and validate them. In addition, the civil rights movement within the United States, and particularly the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forced test developers to develop standards and procedures to justify test usage. This legislation and subsequent court cases ensured that psychologists would need to be involved deeply in personnel testing. Finally, testing in the 1990s onward was greatly influenced by technological advances. Computerization helped standardize administration and scoring of tests as well as opening up the possibility for multimedia item formats. The introduction of the internet and web-based testing also provided additional challenges and opportunities.

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Vocational Testing

The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology ◽

10.1002/9780470479216.corpsy1029 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Brian J. Taber

Keyword(s):

Vocational Testing

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Florida's Vocational Testing Program

Journal of Employment Counseling ◽

10.1002/j.2161-1920.1990.tb00372.x ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 130-138

Author(s):

JANETTE A. HANKINS

Keyword(s):

Testing Program ◽

Vocational Testing

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Vocational Testing

Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine ◽

10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_101847 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 2036-2036

Author(s):

J. Rick Turner ◽

Jonathan Newman ◽

Alexandra Erdmann ◽

Erin Costanzo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Vocational Testing

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Vocational Qualifications in Britain and Europe: Theory and Practice(1)

National Institute Economic Review ◽

10.1177/002795019113600108 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 136 ◽

pp. 86-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

S.J. Prais

Keyword(s):

Teacher Assessment ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Alternative Methods ◽

National Council ◽

Large Measure ◽

Proper Role ◽

Vocational Qualifications ◽

First Time ◽

Vocational Testing

This Note considers three questions bearing on the reform of vocational qualifications in Britain, against the background of changes being introduced by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications. First, in what important respects did Britain need a reformed and centrally-standardised system of vocational qualifications? Secondly, what are the proper criteria for choosing between alternative methods of awarding qualifications? Much that is at issue hinges on the relative importance of externally-marked written tests as compared with practical tasks assessed by an instructor; the discussion and conclusions reached here in relation to vocational testing apply in large measure also to current debates in other contexts, such as the proper role of teacher-assessed coursework in school examinations at 16+ (GCSE) and the official teacher-assessment of pupils at age 7 (SATs) currently being administered in British schools for the first time. Our third question is: in what significant ways do Continental systems of awarding qualifications differ from those now proposed for Britain?

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