Limitations of self assessment tools

Validity is an important criterion for a psychological test to be an effective one. A

psychological test is valid when it actually measures what it intends to measure (Baron,
2002). As mentioned in the previous section, the study by Grubb and McDaniel (2007)
pointed out that self reported EI does not predict ability well (low correlation with ability
assessments). A more recent study by Freund and Kasten (2012) found the same
relationship (low correlation) between self-estimated and psychometrically measured
cognitive ability. It is apparent from these studies that there may be a difference between
the actual ability of an individual and his perception of his ability. This is one of the
significant limitations of self assessment tests. For instance, while taking these tests, in
some cases I found it difficult to make a choice between what best applied to me and what
was ethically correct. Grubb and Daniel (2007) also reported that positive self judgments
skew the scores of users of self assessment tests. This affects the predictive validity of these
tests.
For the assignment I was using only the free tests. These tests were only based on the
actual tests and were not the original ones themselves. For example the test I took for EI
gave me a single score for Emotional Identification perception and expression whereas
the actual MSCEIT(on which the online test was based) for EI gives separate measures for
the four branches of perceiving emotions, facilitating thought, understanding emotions and
managing emotions. Due to this I cannot be sure about the section on which I did not score
well and need to improve.
Another notable aspect is the cultural one. Few of the test items were like situation reaction
tests-If you were in that situation, what would you do? And a response was to be chosen
out of the given ones. It was difficult to relate to some of those situations and sometimes
none of the responses was in tune with what would have been my actual response, so a
kind of compromise was done in those cases. It may be that the test that I took was
designed for a specific community - I think the western world. At the same time I believe it
is impossible to come up with a self assessment test that has culturally neutral items. This

is specifically true for the topic of Emotional Intelligence that I was exploring as emotions
and culture are closely related. For example in a collectivistic society like India or other
Asian countries one may not be as expressive of his emotions as in an individualistic
society like the western world. Moreover, emotions are expressed in different cultures in
different ways. For instance, a handclap is an expression of worry or disappointment in
China (NCERT, 2007). A probable solution is to have culture-fair tests i.e tests are
designed and used for a specific cultural setting. This has been done for IQ tests and may be
done for EI tests as well.
Reliability is another criterion for an effective psychological test. In psychometrics,
consistency in responses is important for high reliability (Baron, 2002). The test items
were all subjective and sometimes the same question was being asked in a different
fashion. I cannot be sure that I was completely consistent in my responses as a question
could not be revisited after answering it once.
Moreover, many of the online tests do not have any documentation regarding their
standardization. So, I believe to make the most of these self assessment exercises in a work
setting the complete paid versions should be used.