Electus

We daily evaluate people around us, in shops, public transportation, on a coffee break with friends, in meetings, receptions, that is, whenever we are in a social situation and it seems that we do not need any special knowledge for that. Yet, there are situations in which the professionals need to thoroughly asses a person and stand behind their conclusions. Certainly, one of these situations is a recruitment of a new employee.

Although it is a recent practice to use psychological tests during employee selection, concerns with assessment quality date back to 200BC.Throughtout history “experts” developed different methods for intelligence and personality and some of them are quite interesting.

History of employee selection starts in Ancient China, 200BC. Literacy tests were developed for the purpose of official recommendations for important positions in government services. They reappeared at the time of the T’ang dynasty (618-906) and by the 14th century the examinations had become elaborately formalized basis for granting of formal government titles. Proficiency in music, archery, horsemanship and knowledge of the ceremonies were examined, but most important was verbal ability, especially constructing “elegant abstract arguments”. Methods were constantly developed over period of 500 years during which many relevant questions were raised, such as importance of memory as a feature of mental ability, the role of expert knowledge, effects of social class on test performance, examiner bias, cheating and many more still important topics.

In 19th century in Vienna, Franz Joseph Gall develops phrenology, doctrine of assessing personality and intelligence by examining shape of the skull. Gall “read” skulls of people and stated that the whole personality can be reduced to 27 functions, which are localized in a part of the brain so close to the skull that it can be seen on its surface. Well-developed functions are enlarged in the brain and they cause palpable bumps to appear on the skull. Less developed powers may even cause indentations. Gall and his followers measured and palpated people’s heads and then draw charts on which it is visible how developed is each of the 27 functions. For example, they concluded that pickpockets all have bumps just above the ear. This doctrine was soon discarded.

At the beginning of the 20th century, during great immigration movement to United States of America, inspectors on Ellis Island screened immigrants in order to prevent immigration of “defective people”. Henry H. Goddard, famous psychologist, researcher of intelligence heritability and representative of eugenics movement under which people were cruelly sterilized if considered carrying “bad genes”, was asked to detect immigrants with below average intelligence. Goddard would line the immigrants up, walk down the line and select people that looked “mentally defective”. Later on his assistants continued to use “psychological methods”, and the number of deportations rose dramatically. Goddard based his estimate on presumption that intelligent people looked bright-eyed and alert. Consequently, immigrants sent word back to others to drop Belladonna in their eyes (atropine which produces papillary dilatation) in order to achieve wide-eyed look Goddard considered a sign of high intelligence (according to Hothersall, 2004.).

At the beginning of 20th century starts more systematic approach to human resources and work organization. Selection process significantly improved in recent years and is focused on holistic approach in assessment and implementation of objective and reliable methods. Still, large number of companies, wanting to save money, use only CV and interview as the only source of information in selection process, but don’t realize that in doing so they risk employing inadequate candidate whose premature leaving, long introduction to employment or low efficacy will eventually cost much more than professional selection. During interview, one can only get partial picture of the candidate and assessment can be clouded by interviewer’s subjective impression, attitudes and expectations, candidate’s verbal abilities and other similar factors. Because of that, it is important to include objective tests in selection process and gather information from several sources in order to select the candidate that, besides being bright-eyed, has all relevant competencies.