Research Foundation
Collection of Data for Normative Samples: Acumen assessments are standardized on a representative sample of professionals from over 70 industries, primarily in the United States. We carry products with norm bases for both managers and individual contributors. If you’re looking for an instrument for a specific audience, please call us and we will be happy to assist you in finding the best solution.
Human Synergistics/Acumen is committed to attaining high psychometric quality standards for our assessment instruments. These standards spring from traditionally accepted psychometric concepts regarding relevant forms of validity and reliability. We use these high standards to guide the continuous improvement process of all of our assessment instruments. These ideal standards are defined below. Methods and validity reports are available for each product within the individual product description sections on this site.
Reliability
Reliability refers to the consistency of measurement. Some of the key issues are: across-item consistency, across-observer consistency, and across-form consistency.
Across-Item Consistency: Across-item consistency is important because it indicates that all the items in a scale measure the same thing. This is called "internal reliability."
Across-Observer Consistency: Because co-worker scores are based on aggregate data from several co-worker raters, there is the additional consideration of consistency across observers rating the same individual. This is also called "inter-judge" or "inter-rater reliability."
Across-Form Consistency: Given that individuals can have the option to complete assessments via computer (Web) or paper-and-pencil forms, it is worthwhile to determine that there is no significant difference in response depending on test media.
Validity
Test validity concerns how well the test measures what was intended to be measured. Even a highly reliable (consistent) test could measure something other than what was intended. Thus, validity is the ultimate basis for judging the meaningfulness and usefulness of the inferences that can be made from test scores. Traditionally, the various means of accumulating validity evidence have been grouped into categories called content-related, criterion-related, and construct-related evidence of validity.
Content-Related Validity: Content-related validity deals with the issue of how well a sample of items or questions is representative of a defined domain of interest. This is also referred to as "consensual" or "face validity," and is strongly related to internal consistency.
Criterion-Related Validity: Criterion-related validity deals with the issue of whether the test scores are related to one or more observable outcome criteria.
Construct-Related Validity: Construct-related validity deals with the issue of whether the test really measures the characteristics that were identified in the initial theoretical formulation. |