Weaknesses

Validity Problems
 

• Problems within the test itself. Sometimes Psychometric tests don't actually measure what they set out to measure.

• Participants do not always give truthful responses. For instance, participants may choose to give socially desirable responses in a personality test.

• People may get better through practice which could mean, for instance, that participants would have an artificially high intelligence test score.

• Some tests are biased towards one group of people. For example, Yerke's IQ tests favoured Native Americans by measuring cultural information rather than IQ.

Reliability Problems

•  Mood can affect people’s scores. For example, if somebody was feeling tired they might not try as hard. This coud mean that the test produces different results when used at different times.