Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Checking in on the Free Markets Personality Tests Evaluating the HumanGuide Test - Psychometric Challenges and Its Alignment With the Big Five Model

Josephson, Axel LU and Pahlman, Albin LU (2025) PSYP01 20251
Department of Psychology
Abstract
The expanding market for psychometric tests faces challenges due to the spread of unvalidated tools. The adoption of popular but scientifically unsupported assessment tools can lead to ineffective hiring and misinformed decisions. This thesis aimed to evaluate and conduct a psychometric analysis of a commercially accessible forced-choice personality test - HumanGuide. Archival data (supplied by HumanGuide) from 4956 respondents, including business professionals and high-school students, was analysed using factor analysis, T-IRT factor analysis, and reliability analysis. Further analyses mapped the item set onto, and compared against, the Big Five personality model. Factor analysis showed poor fit (CFI < .2, RMSEA < .2), although... (More)
The expanding market for psychometric tests faces challenges due to the spread of unvalidated tools. The adoption of popular but scientifically unsupported assessment tools can lead to ineffective hiring and misinformed decisions. This thesis aimed to evaluate and conduct a psychometric analysis of a commercially accessible forced-choice personality test - HumanGuide. Archival data (supplied by HumanGuide) from 4956 respondents, including business professionals and high-school students, was analysed using factor analysis, T-IRT factor analysis, and reliability analysis. Further analyses mapped the item set onto, and compared against, the Big Five personality model. Factor analysis showed poor fit (CFI < .2, RMSEA < .2), although internal-consistency coefficients for the majority of the eight proposed factors were acceptable (α = .61 – .70). Big-Five alignment was partial and inconsistent. The credibility of these results were reduced by the inventory’s ipsative, Multidimensional Forced-Choice format, which restricted variance and inflated intercorrelations. Overall, the evidence does not support the validity of HumanGuide, highlighting the hazards of relying on commercially attractive but empirically unsupported instruments. The issues and consequences of unscientific test construction are discussed, with an emphasis on the challenges and problematic evaluation of data generated from uninformed test construction. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Josephson, Axel LU and Pahlman, Albin LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYP01 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
psychometrics, ipsative data, forced choice, personality assessment, Big Five
language
English
id
9201287
date added to LUP
2025-06-18 13:42:44
date last changed
2025-06-18 13:42:44
@misc{9201287,
  abstract     = {{The expanding market for psychometric tests faces challenges due to the spread of unvalidated tools. The adoption of popular but scientifically unsupported assessment tools can lead to ineffective hiring and misinformed decisions. This thesis aimed to evaluate and conduct a psychometric analysis of a commercially accessible forced-choice personality test - HumanGuide. Archival data (supplied by HumanGuide) from 4956 respondents, including business professionals and high-school students, was analysed using factor analysis, T-IRT factor analysis, and reliability analysis. Further analyses mapped the item set onto, and compared against, the Big Five personality model. Factor analysis showed poor fit (CFI < .2, RMSEA < .2), although internal-consistency coefficients for the majority of the eight proposed factors were acceptable (α = .61 – .70). Big-Five alignment was partial and inconsistent. The credibility of these results were reduced by the inventory’s ipsative, Multidimensional Forced-Choice format, which restricted variance and inflated intercorrelations. Overall, the evidence does not support the validity of HumanGuide, highlighting the hazards of relying on commercially attractive but empirically unsupported instruments. The issues and consequences of unscientific test construction are discussed, with an emphasis on the challenges and problematic evaluation of data generated from uninformed test construction.}},
  author       = {{Josephson, Axel and Pahlman, Albin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Checking in on the Free Markets Personality Tests Evaluating the HumanGuide Test - Psychometric Challenges and Its Alignment With the Big Five Model}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}