Page 120 - SSB Interview: The Complete Guide, Second Edition

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Section 2 – Psychological

Tests

Basis of Psychological Testing

Psychological or psychometric testing is based on the principles of projective

testing. In this, there is a series of tests like the Word Association Test
(WAT), Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Situation Reaction Test (SRT)
and Self-Description Test (SD). It is believed that the responses to these tests
are an outcome of the candidate’s personality traits and thus, an estimation of

his/her traits can be made by going through the candidate’s response to
various stimuli.

The psychological tests given in the SSBs are aimed to analyse not only the

Officer Like Qualities (OLQs), but also the reason behind the behaviour of
the candidates. The human mind plays an important role in the perception of

a situation and the reaction is based on his/her past experiences, which have
influence over his/her behaviour. The interpretation of the mind is essential in
terms of the three levels, viz. Conscious, Sub-conscious and Unconscious.

Personality is defined as “a particular combination of emotional, attitudinal
and behavioural response patterns of an individual”. From this definition it is
evident that it has more to do with the internal state of a person rather than
his/her external appearance. Thus, when a candidate is shown stimuli and

asked to respond, his/her emotional, attitudinal and behavioural patterns
emerge very clearly. Since the tests are conducted under time constraints, the