One of the common misconceptions about psychological testing is that even the so-called objective psychological tests (usually done on a computer or paper-and-pencil tests) tap into a single “truth” about the person. And that there is very little subjectivity in such tests.

In fact, one’s approach to taking a psychological test has a big impact on the test’s results — and the interpretations of those results by a trained psychologist.

The problem is that psychologists — and worse, the legal system — uses these tests as not only an indicator of where a person is in their life right now, but as a predictor of their future potential. If something as simple as one’s motivation can have a significant impact on one of these scores, what does that mean for the predictive power of these tests?

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