The first part of this series of articles looked at the early pioneers of aptitude testing. Now we will continue with the story up to the present day.
After the development of the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) and the CPI (California Psychological Inventory), the use of personality tests rose steadily until the early 1960s, then peaked and slowly declined. More than 80% of all large companies used personality tests to select sales staff. By 1984, this figure had fallen to just over a quarter of companies. The reasons for this were the interactionism (interaction of personal and situational characteristics) advocated by Walter Mischel and growing public resistance to testing. This led to an intense political debate about these procedures, with the focus primarily on aspects of test fairness.
It was not until 1980, starting in the United States, that the topic was revived and gained increasing importance. Scientific and practical interest was rekindled. From the original translated tests to newly developed procedures, a change can be seen that confirms a further increase in interest to this day.
It is interesting to note that the occurrence of the terms "personality test" and "aptitude diagnostics" in German-language literature between 1900 and 2008 shows some differences in the "German" corpus, even though the two terms have a similar meaning. This is illustrated by the following figure from the book "Aptitude Diagnostics in Practice – An Engineer Remains an Engineer":
While the term "personality test" gained popularity relatively early, as early as 1930, the term "aptitude testing" only became really popular after World War II in 1945. After a sharp decline, "aptitude testing" has been steadily increasing since 1957, with several minor fluctuations. In contrast, "personality test" has repeatedly experienced major slumps in its occurrence. However, there is one thing they have in common. Both terms have shown significant growth since 1996, which will continue to increase steadily. This means that both terms have arrived in the 21st century and continue to grow in popularity.
Nowadays, aptitude testing is a collective term for job-related procedures used to measure skills and behavioral tendencies. Basically, aptitude testing is intended to provide as accurate a prediction as possible of a person's likelihood of success or professional suitability.
It should be noted that aptitude testing can look back on an impressive history, and its development will continue.
Outlook: Our next article in this series will focus on the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz – Ingenieur bleibt Ingenieur" (Aptitude Diagnostics in Practice – An Engineer Remains an Engineer) by Armin Betz. Do you know what important and typical characteristics define an engineer? You can find out about these and many other aspects, such as the importance of development areas, in the following article.
About the author
After completing his studies in automotive engineering and industrial engineering, he began his professional career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development, and marketing, and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing for Japan and South America as well as marketing strategy for North and South America.
In 1994, he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consulting firm in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
His doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics ideally complements his areas of expertise, particularly in relation to human resources and management consulting. His dissertation deals with the identification and verification of typical personality traits of engineers and the definition of areas of development for a successful career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz" (Aptitude Diagnostics in Practical Use).
At the same time, he focuses on establishing networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Over the past 20 years in HR consulting, he has developed several brands that continue to operate successfully on the market today.
