Sunday, January 17, 2010

Psychological Tests for Employment-Intrusion into Privacy?

Psychological Tests are , at best , an educated guess work and no final word has been spoken on the veracity of the results obtained through these tests.They, right from early Stanford Test, are being constantly updated and the methodology adopted is open to question.They ignore ethnic,cultural backgrounds and the selection criteria of control group is also questionable.Also the factor of Heredity in behavior is not yet ascertained.You may read more on this in my blog filed under Psychological Tests.

A new book shows the power corporations wield over their employees has gone too far. It's time to take action.
Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Can They Do That? Retaking Our Fundamental Rights in the Workplace. An AlterNet review of the book by Liliana Segura follows the excerpt.

Sibi Soroka was shocked. He had applied for a job as a security guard at the local Target to provide some steady income while he pursued his career as an actor. At the end of the process, he was required to take the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a psychological test used by many employers. The tests included questions about his sex life, religious beliefs, intimate feelings about family members, and even his bathroom habits.

"I couldn't believe anyone would ask me such personal questions," Soroka said. "These are questions you wouldn't even answer for your own mother, let alone some personnel director at a company." The more he thought about it the more upset he became. When the company called him to offer him the job, he told them to find somebody else; he didn't want to work for a company that treated people this way.

Soroka is not alone. An estimated 15 million Americans are required to take the MMPI every year, including two million people who are required to take it as part of applying for a job. Applicants who are forced to take the test range from doctors and priests to retail sales clerks. The test has been translated into 115 different languages, including Hmong, Turkish, and even sign language. The MMPI is only one of many psychological tests used by employers, According to the American Management Association, over 40 percent of employers nationwide use psychological tests, including eighty-nine of the Fortune 100.
http://www.alternet.org/story/145035/can_they_do_that_how_you_get_screwed_at_work

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