Projective Assessments: The Evolving Niche in Testing

Speaker: Marjorie Raymond, Managing Director, MWR Consulting,  Dr Christopher Ridgeway, ODL,  Paula Dixon, Hazon Consulting

Projective tests are a type of personality test in which the individual must respond to ambiguous scenes, words or images or drawings.

The talk will focus on the development of projective measures, the controversies and specifically the – Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) –and, how it fits into the recruitment process.

Background

Projective measures differ from ‘objective tests’as responses are necessarily unique to each individual. However, despite the use of guidelines, the interpretation of responses to projective measures remains problematic.

So, why use them at all? Clients have been educated by psychologists to expect ever-increasing accuracy and objectivity in assessment, and while that itself is open to debate, the world of work has been changing. Therefore, projective assessment is also moving to establish new niches where job performance in high- pressure environments can be less easily predicted using ‘traditional objective’ approaches. The age of ever-increasing job uncertainty, the rise of knowledge-based work, the gig-economy and the spectre of AI have led, especially at senior and executive levels, to the evolution of unique roles placed in a context of flux and uncertainty. Therefore, there is a realisation that it is time to look at different kinds assessment tests.

Marjorie Raymond, Christopher Ridgeway and Paula Dixon will discuss how the market for projective testing is changing and using case studies how this form of testing is increasingly meeting a challenging marketplace demands. The session will be interactive with attendees gaining first-hand experience in its practical application.

Starting her career in Financial Services as a Project Manager and coach, Marjorie is now a Chartered Applied Psychologist, in Occupational Psychology, a Practice Supervisor with the British Psychological Society and is on the Registers of Coaching Psychologists and Assessment. She lives and practises in Halifax. .Chris is also a Chartered Applied Psychologist and has extensive experience using projective measures. She has contributed a chapter to a recently published book: Psychometric Testing edited by Barry Cripps. Paula is a business psychologist specialising in executive coaching.

It is expected that the presentation will last 45 minutes followed by approximately 30 minutes of Q&A and networking will as usual be encouraged at this event.  

We should like to thank Manchester Metropolitan University Department of Business Psychology for once again hosting this event.  We look forward to welcoming you.