Selection of industrial and organisational psychology master's students: exploring the validity of applied psychometric measures

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how well the academic performance of the Industrial and Organisational Psychology master’s students at a research institution can be predicted through psychometric measures. A non-experimental design was used in this empirical study. The sample consisted of one hundred and thirty-three IO Psychology master’s students over a five-year period. The secondary data for this research originated from the students completing the Graduate Verify Ability tests as well as the Occupational Personality Questionnaire, which are psychometric measures that form part of the selection. Both psychometric measures load onto the Person Job Match competencies. A theoretical relationship could be found between the Ability tests and academic success as well as the PJM competencies that included weighted scores from both psychometric measures. The empirical relationships, therefore, proved that the ability tests have the strongest predictive ability for academic success.