There are hundreds even thousands of quick and easy surveys out there. Many of them are called “self-assessment” instruments. The advent of inexpensive survey creator tools like Qualtrics and Survey Monkey have allowed the proliferation of survey tools. Some are of value, some are not. Creating a valid and accurate survey requires significant effort: question formulation, item writing, item testing usually with a field of experts, initial testing to establish various validity and dependability statistics to ensure the survey is actually measuring what you hoped it would, sample selection, and more.
At the simplest level, surveys should report the demographics of their samples (not assuming the results apply to the general public), and percentages of responses. Beyond that there are many ways to analyze the data depending on the size of the data set and the tested validity (does it measure what it says it does) and dependability (does it yield the same kind of results time after time).
The “psychological” studies that one reads in popular magazines are of the simplest kind with very little validity and/or dependability analysis. Typically, they simply report as noted above, sample characteristics and simple percentages.
Note that some tests have been analyzed and re-analyzed over the years to mixed results on both validity and dependability. IQ tests are among these as is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which was originally developed by a mother and daughter team trying to analyze the “different” personality of the son-in-law/husband.
THEREFORE, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT ONE NEVER PLACES CONFIDENCE IN THE RESULTS OF ANY SINGLE ASSESSMENT TOOL. No instrument is accurate enough nor comprehensive enough to hang your hat on/believe in. I have taught career management courses at Harvard and Virginia for over 3 decades and we always said that one should ONLY TRUST RESULTS THAT APPEAR REPEATEDLY ACROSS MULTIPLE DATA SETS/INSTRUMENTS. This is inductive logic, scanning evidence and looking for patterns across multiple data sources.
We summarized this technique at Harvard based on the award-winning work of John Kotter, Tony Athos, Charles McArthur and Victor Faux. You can see my summary of that work with guidance on how to use some 25 self-assessment tools on one of my webpages at Personal Web - James G. Clawson (at the bottom the Career Option Workbook COW and at Getting Below the Surface The interactive PDF file FindingFit is available through Darden School Business Publishing. FindingFIT
NEVER TRUST THE RESULTS OF A SINGLE INSTRUMENT! There are many reasons for this.
At the simplest level, surveys should report the demographics of their samples (not assuming the results apply to the general public), and percentages of responses. Beyond that there are many ways to analyze the data depending on the size of the data set and the tested validity (does it measure what it says it does) and dependability (does it yield the same kind of results time after time).
The “psychological” studies that one reads in popular magazines are of the simplest kind with very little validity and/or dependability analysis. Typically, they simply report as noted above, sample characteristics and simple percentages.
Note that some tests have been analyzed and re-analyzed over the years to mixed results on both validity and dependability. IQ tests are among these as is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which was originally developed by a mother and daughter team trying to analyze the “different” personality of the son-in-law/husband.
THEREFORE, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT ONE NEVER PLACES CONFIDENCE IN THE RESULTS OF ANY SINGLE ASSESSMENT TOOL. No instrument is accurate enough nor comprehensive enough to hang your hat on/believe in. I have taught career management courses at Harvard and Virginia for over 3 decades and we always said that one should ONLY TRUST RESULTS THAT APPEAR REPEATEDLY ACROSS MULTIPLE DATA SETS/INSTRUMENTS. This is inductive logic, scanning evidence and looking for patterns across multiple data sources.
We summarized this technique at Harvard based on the award-winning work of John Kotter, Tony Athos, Charles McArthur and Victor Faux. You can see my summary of that work with guidance on how to use some 25 self-assessment tools on one of my webpages at Personal Web - James G. Clawson (at the bottom the Career Option Workbook COW and at Getting Below the Surface The interactive PDF file FindingFit is available through Darden School Business Publishing. FindingFIT
NEVER TRUST THE RESULTS OF A SINGLE INSTRUMENT! There are many reasons for this.
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