# Questions about the "psych" tests on job applications
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 31, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718 "2014-05-31T19:49:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Why\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_Child)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/1 "2014-05-31T19:49:57Z")
What is the deal with these tests? Some of the questions just make no sense. What are they looking for? I took notes this time, and I want to share them with you to get your input.
I am job hunting again. I have decided my current job is unacceptable. I am back to filling out job applications, and having to take the “psych tests.” :eek: I have a fear of these tests, due to something I was told at a job interview. I’ll spoiler it, because it makes an already long post too long, and really has nothing to do with the thread, read it if you want!
At a job interview for Lowe’s, the interviewer and I got along quite well. I was applying in the spring, and really wanted to work in the garden center. I expressed this desire, but stated I’d be happy to work in other departments as well. I admitted to not having much experience in DIY. I also told him that I learn rather quickly. We were chatting and laughing with each other during the interview. I was absolutely positive I had the job. He made the comment that I seemed rather intelligent. I admitted that I had been told that. He then warned me that the psych test is written for people of average intelligence, and not to put too much thought into the questions. “The more intelligent a person is, the more shades of gray they see. You need to think in black and white. Sadly, the test is skewed against you.” **WHAT?!** I was halfway through the test when he poked his head in the room, said “You’re not done yet?” And then he told me to hurry. I did not get the job. ☹
Sample questions from the “makes no sense” category:
“There are 7 days in a week.”
“There are 80 days in a month.”
“You can count to 10.”
“You can read well enough to complete this survey.”
Why are they asking these questions? For what possible reason are they included in the test?
Then, there are the ones where I see shades of gray. How is a person supposed to answer these?
**"You have days in which it seems that everything goes wrong."** Yes, doesn’t everybody? No, wait, they said “everything.” Well, I woke up breathing, and I had a cup of coffee. But, I hear other people say “everything has gone wrong today,” so how the hell do you answer that question?
**"You hate to work with ignorant people."** Um, yes…? No, wait, I will be waiting on customers, they are allowed to be ignorant. What kind of ignorant are we talking about? I had a co-worker who KNEW he had a 20 minute break, knew what time he clocked out, and STILL had to ask me what time was he supposed to clock back in!! Let’s say he was not my favorite.
**"You dislike people who always want something from you."** My boss always wants something from me, I expect that and do not mind a bit. My neighbor, who never comes to “visit,” but only knocks when she wants something, I do not like. Learn to manage your money, do not ask me for money or food. I do dislike people who always want something from me, but since this is for a job, I disagreed, and now I’m second guessing myself.
**"You enjoy making other people do what you want them to do."** I have had management positions, I am good at figuring out my co-workers strengths and delegating accordingly. I enjoy that. However, the question has a bit of a “treating them like puppets” feel to it, and I’m not sure how they meant it. I agreed with the statement, and now I’m having second thoughts.
**"You like to be with people all of the time."** I like people, I like to be with people. All of the time? No, I like my private time, too. I disagreed with that statement. Are they going to decide I am anti-social, and not hire me?
.
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/2 "2014-05-31T20:17:36Z")
The year before I retired I was offered a promotion and asked to take one of these tests. I quit in the middle of the test and decided to go forward with my retirement. The tests suck! You want to be honest but not give a false bad impression.
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/3 "2014-05-31T20:28:24Z")
The weirdest questions are designed to test for whether you’re even reading the questions - a complete illiterate will get some right and get some wrong.
Most of the psych questions are designed to test for whether you know what appropriate behavior is. They don’t care whether you actually have bad days or not, or how much you hate this or that, or whether you’re answering the questions honestly. Nobody answers such questions honestly - they answer with what they think the company wants to hear, and the company knows that. If you’re so socially tone-deaf that you can’t guess what they want to hear, then they don’t want you. Imagine a little Stepford person in your head, giving chirpy cheerful answers before you can weigh in.
So, “No, No, No, No, and Yes.”
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/4 "2014-05-31T20:42:37Z")
They’re not “psych” tests. They typically have no reliability, validity, norming, basis in reality.
–A Psychologist
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### Author:  [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/5 "2014-05-31T21:03:21Z")
The first questions sound like they are looking for basic literacy. The last ones are to root out generally difficult to work with people- the sad sack, the grandiose narcissist, and the would be puppet master. Yes, anyone with a lock of sense can see past them. But the true head cases think that they are in the right, so they may not see their answer is the “wrong one.”
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### Author:  [@Denial\_flash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denial_flash)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/6 "2014-05-31T21:17:12Z")
These tests are usually very long so I always thought the first set of questions were there to check that you’re actually paying attention and not randomly checking the “yes” or “no” box.
I have no idea what the “correct” answer to the second set of questions would be, my answer would have been no to all of them if that helps.
They seem too strongly negative (in the second one for instance: **hate** and **ignorant** -yikes.)
And the last one—wanting to be with people ALL of the time makes you seem insecure IMO. Even if the job requires teamwork you should be able to work alone when needed.
I’ve only been asked to take a personality test twice and was hired both times; didn’t overthink it, answered whatever came to mind first.
…but I am of average intelligence .
Best of luck!
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/7 "2014-05-31T21:21:32Z")
Way back in 1981 or so, I applied for this particular part time job. One of the questions was “Salary expected?” I answered “Yes!”
I got the job.
At a retail store, one of the psych test Qs was if everybody steals.
I answered no. Afterwards, discussing it with other employees, I received a lot of “Well, OBVIOUSLY, the right answer is\_\_\_\_\_\_” About 50/50 yes/no. I thought that was more interesting than the test itself
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/8 "2014-05-31T21:48:30Z")
> [@Why\_Child](#):
>
> Sample questions from the “makes no sense” category:
>
> “There are 7 days in a week.”
> “There are 80 days in a month.”
> “You can count to 10.”
> “You can read well enough to complete this survey.”
>
> Why are they asking these questions? For what possible reason are they included in the test?
All of these questions make sense and could easily be answered correctly by the sort of person they’d want to hire. They were trying to weed out people who can’t read (or can’t read English), people who really are so stupid that they don’t know how many days there are in a week, and people who don’t care enough to do more than just randomly mark “True” or “False”.
> [@](#):
>
> Then, there are the ones where I see shades of gray. How is a person supposed to answer these?
You were explicitly warned not to look for shades of grey. You were applying for a customer service position, a job which would require dealing with a lot of ignorant people who are always going to want something from you. The store wanted someone either genial enough to not be bothered by this or interested enough to fake it for the sake of the job. While I have no experience administering or scoring these kinds of tests, it seems obvious to me that the “correct” answers would be the ones that make you sound cheerful, hardworking, and considerate.
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/9 "2014-06-02T05:19:07Z")
> [@Why\_Child](#):
>
> Sample questions from the “makes no sense” category:
>
> “There are 7 days in a week.”
> “There are 80 days in a month.”
> “You can count to 10.”
> “You can read well enough to complete this survey.”
>
> Why are they asking these questions? For what possible reason are they included in the test?
None of these are questions.
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/10 "2014-06-02T05:37:09Z")
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> None of these are questions.
Psych!
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### Author:  [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/11 "2014-06-02T13:05:12Z")
Just stick to your guns and give utterly honest intuitive answers, and damn their consequences.
P. G. Wodehouse once said: ‘_The right sort of people don’t want an apology, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of one_.’ Riffing off that, are the sort of people who are out for stupid answers, or those who take a mean pleasure in making you soul-destroyingly debase yourself in a mutual lie that both know you have only offered in order to suck up, the sort of people you want to work for ?
Employers don’t deserve respect, they have to earn it.
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### Author:  [@dballantine1999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dballantine1999)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/12 "2017-06-20T22:16:11Z")
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> None of these are questions.
Have you never applied for any job online, ever?
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-psych-tests-on-job-applications/689718/13 "2017-06-20T23:12:19Z")
> [@Why\_Child](#):
>
> Sample questions from the “makes no sense” category:
>
> “There are 7 days in a week.”
> “There are 80 days in a month.”
> “You can count to 10.”
> “You can read well enough to complete this survey.”
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> None of these are questions.
> [@dballantine1999](#):
>
> Have you never applied for any job online, ever?
I have never applied for job online, but I have filled out employment applications, I have taken many different type of tests, and I know the difference between a statement and a question. **Isamu** is correct, those are not questions. Somehow I don’t believe that if applied for a job online that they would magically turn into questions.
Perhaps you could kindly explain why those are called questions (e.g., if they’re in the true/false section of the test there’s an implicit question of “Is it true that…”), and what applying for a job online has to do with it.