Physical Ability Tests For Industrial And Organizational Psychology

I have used and taken many psychological assessments and measurements in my career. Most of these have been conducted in the military. “A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized measure of a sample behavior (Murphy and Davidshofer, 1988).” In the Army, these tests are used for various reasons. The Army is slowly expanding their use of psychometric testing to help identify who is best suited to join the military's force. It becomes an expensive issue when mentally disqualified individuals are placed in the military. The force is continuously developing additional psychological assessments and measurements in order to weed out potentially risky Soldiers. A person cannot be simply judged because of their appearance;

One of my highest scores was physical wellness. This is because being physically fit is very important to me. Since 6th grade I have always been very involved in sports. Through middle school I played football, cross country, track, and was captain of the wrestling team. Because of this physical fitness is deeply important to me. I avoid anything that can possibly hinder my physical abilities like drugs and smoking. I eat well a majority of the time and am currently on my school’s raider team which has kept me very physically fit.

There are a slew of tests that attempt to measure how intelligent human beings are. They all measure different aspects and those factors will be covered here. One of the misconceptions is that the tests measure inborn intelligence. Few of the activities are designed for that purpose. They actually measure a person’s interaction with the environment and what they have learned from that interaction. The most common tested aspect is critical thinking. Instead of straightforward questions, intelligence tests offer questions with a twist. It is assumed that the most intelligent people will see obvious flaws in the obvious answers (Steinberg & Williams, 2015). Some intelligence tests also measure reflexes, both mental and physical. The assumption is quick reaction times reflect an active brain and in the line of thinking, a more intelligent person.

There are certain instances where individuals need to have certain characteristics in order to perform a job duty successfully. A great example of these qualifications would be a movie company looking for someone of a specific race to play a specific part in a movie. Some jobs also require a certain amount of stamina and physical strength, such as lifting heavy boxes all day. It would be silly for a company to hire a 65 year old frail person for this job since they obviously would not be able to complete their daily duties in a timely or efficient manner. “To protect an employer from liability for discrimination, BFOQs must be a matter of business necessity and not mere pretext” (Lily,

How they do this is Bona fide occupational requirements, or BFOR for short. What BFOR is, is “its a true requirement of a job that merits a possibly discriminatory effect.”(Michael Kimmel, page 218) Gender favoritism plays a part in how companies select the BFOR, an example “in terms of police-specific testing, several physical ability tests have been used in North America.” (Gregory S. Anderson, page 10) In some cases BFOR was not properly used and is a clear example of how gender favoritism shapes certain fields of work. “In 1994, Tawney Meiorin, who had successfully worked as a forest firefighter in British Columbia for more than 2 years, was dismissed from her job for marginally failing one of four parts of an aerobic fitness test.”(Rickards Kuruganti, page 451) Although it makes sense for somebody who has a job that is very hazardous to have to pass all tests that are mandatory,. “However, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that the standard was not a BFOR and that the standards for this test had not been shown to be an accurate indicator of ability to perform the duties of a firefighter safely and efficiently. She was subsequently rehired and compensated.”(Rickards Kuruganti, page

In the article, “Undulation Training for Development of Hierarchical Fitness and Improved Firefighter Job Performance,” a research was conducted when a critical problem emerged from the extraordinary job risks of firefighting. In this article, it was recognized that firefighting was a high risk occupation in which many activities were life threatening. Yearly incidences brought on from these life-threatening activities and conditions included cardiovascular disease from the inhalation of smoke as well as musculoskeletal injuries from the physical demands of the job. The problem was lying in the fact most fire departments were failing to adequately prepare the firefighters in terms of health and physical fitness to take on the

2. Prior to being hired, were there any verbal assessments of your physical ability taken (i.e. did they ask you questions about your physical health or ability to lift heavy weights)?

Tawney Meiorin is a female forest firefighter that has worked for the Province of British Columbia for the past three years. Recently this province adopted a new series of fitness testing that each worker must pass. Tawney passed three of the four tests, the one that she failed was a 2.5-kilometer run designed to test her aerobic fitness, her aerobic fitness was below minimum standard and she was fired. However, there was no difference in aerobic testing for men and women, everyone was tested equality. Therefore Tawney felt the test discriminated against women as they have a lower aerobic capacity than most men and cannot women increase their capacity. She then brought the case to the Supreme Court of Canada to fight for her rights, they decided unanimously that aerobics standard was not valid and they didn’t see any evidence that aerobic standard was necessary for the job. The aerobic test was only effective in measuring ones aerobic capacity not their capacity to fight fires. As a result, Tawney ended up getting her job back. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the physiological, psychological and environmental stressors of this particular job and how it could be potentially affected by gender as well as providing my personal opinion on the decision of the Province of British Columbia and the Supreme Court.

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

In conclusion,Mensa workout is not a suitable test to measure the intelligence level of a person as this test is not reliable and valid.An intelligence assessment is not only to measure one’s intelligence in terms of knowledge but also to discover one’s outstanding capability or talent. So, IQ test question is not enough to measure one’s intelligence because it does not reflect one’s intelligence accurately.

During meetings, my managers presented different scenarios to measure our work abilities. Through these scenarios, my managers were able to measure my verbal ability and reasoning. Verbal cognitive ability is important when working with people of disabilities. It is important that I'm able to communicate efficiently with my clients in way they could understand. My managers would test my verbal abilities by creating situations on how well I communicate with individuals who have verbal disabilities. Reasoning is another characteristics I believe is important when working with clients. We have people coming in with different disabilities and situations; and it's my duty to gather the proper information to accommodate those needs. Because I work

The advantages of relying on tests or assessments to select the best job candidate is highly dependent of whether or not the assessment measures the most influential business outcomes for the company doing the hiring. It is important to remember that evaluating candidates is not the primary goal when using assessments. Improving performance outcomes of employees is the ultimate goal of choosing and using the most effective assessment. Companies are in business to increase their bottom line. Learning about their potential employees and

2) This company will not discriminate in hiring practices or procedures based on physical deformity, physical limitation, or mental/ physical defect, unless the position is such that the posted position requires levels of mental and/or physical fitness that cannot be adaptable with modalities to enhance those applicants to fit the posted health and fitness requirements specific to the job.

2. Explain the purpose and benefits of fitness testing drawing on examples from your chosen activity (5 marks):

Psychological tests and or psychological assessments are an important asset in the field of psychology. These tests are designed to measure people’s characteristics which pertain to behavior. There are a variety of different types of tests that can be used to assess different types of behaviors. According to the specific behavior or behaviors being assessed, tests are categorized into two types, ability tests and personality tests. Ability tests, which encompass achievement, aptitude, and intelligence testing are used to determine capacity or potential by measuring scores based on speed, accuracy, or both. On the other hand, personality tests, which include structured or projective are used to determine behavior traits, that may be overt