Thursday, August 09, 2007

Reliability and Validity

Aside: Anyone who has ever taken a statistics course should shudder at the two main words in the title.

I was quite shocked to find there is some insightful “truth” to some of those tests floating around out there dealing with personality, interests, etc. Granted, I have no concrete numbers of reliability and validity to back my statement up, only observations and speculations.
Recently, I took two tests pinpointing different facets: career and personality. Yes, there is overlap between the two constructs, but the results were very similar in which one must raise an eyebrow to ponder if there was actual ‘intelligent design’ (using the term way differently than how you are probably used to seeing it) behind the creation of these tests.

Abridged results from career test:
You like job responsibilities that include organizing and systematizing, and professions that are detail-oriented, predictable, and objective, which often leads to work in research, banking, accounting, systems analysis, tax law, finance, government work, and engineering. You perform your job responsibilities in a manner that is orderly, cautious, structured, loyal, systematic, solitary, methodical, and organized, and usually thrive in a research-oriented, predictable, established, controlled, measurable, orderly environment.

Abridged results from personality test:
You are a Faithful Analyst. Your attention to detail, confidence, sense of order, and focus on functionality combine to make you an ANALYST. Your trust in others, respect for tradition, and caring nature make you FAITHFUL. Your perspective on the world is based on careful observation, and you know a lot about how people feel in—and react to—many situations.

It frightens me that my major and my career (which I think of more as a job) falls into place with me. I originally thought there were more disconnects than overlapping linkages, but my Venn diagrams prove otherwise.
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