Why is mental endurance never tested in 'aptitude' exams?

Post Reply New Topic

I met with a psychologist last night for the first time and as typical with a first meeting I did a lot of rehash of the last 30-some years. We got on a topic that got me thinking though; mainly that I mentioned taking all kinds of career exams and aptitude tests which generally told me I was smart enough to do anything but I realized one of the things that never gets covered is endurance.

IMHO yes, someone can be smart enough to do almost anything but whether they're healthily functioning at a job, just staying above water, or even sinking, it seems like its not just how much you can ultimately figure things out but how quickly and how much stamina different parts of your brain have. That said - whether its job aptitude tests, college career counselor exams, or even tests on disability, any ideas on why cognitive endurance has never been factored in?

My guess would be that it is simple too challenging for researchers to isolate mental endurance from general mental acuity. If they were able to do this, it would likely take a bit of time which most behavioral research labs do not have the resources (i.e. money to pay researchers to sit around observing and testing for long periods) to accomodate.

As with so many other issues in this world, it likely has to do with a lack of funding.

The above is just a guess though.

I'm kind of glad they don't do 'cognitive endurance' testing. If employers started looking at that factor during the hiring process, I'd probably never be able to maintain gainful employment, lol.

I'd take it that if they could get a relatively clean read on this it would mean that there would be a new category of people who are underserved and have no safety net who could find one. Also, it would mean that those who had this situation would be assisted in terms of finding work arrangements that would better suite their needs; it seems like in broader terms there's very little thought put into this aspect of employee performance and aiding those who have a bottleneck in that perspective.

In theory maybe, but I'm not sure how that would play out in practice. I've seen employers try to wriggle out of providing accommodations for people with very tangible, easy-to-understand forms of physical disability and find creative loopholes to discriminate against even those clients. I'm not saying this is not a form of 'real' disability, but I'm just not sure how much of a safety net it would actually provide for people to be labeled as having 'low cognitive endurance.'

At a minimum guidance counselors should be able to look at people for this, and different people will have different levels of endurance in different areas. It'd be helpful in guiding career choice.

^^OK.

If you've done a lot of career and aptitude tests, can you recommend any that would be free? Online stuff, maybe? I'm thinking about grad school, but cannot commit to a program and take out student loans, when I'm not confident I'm on the right path. (The area of study I'm thinking about requires field practicum in addition to coursework, so it would be almost impossible for me to keep a full-time job and health benefits while doing it, which is making it even bigger of a decision). The fact that you spent years doing this stuff and are still questioning things almost as much as I am doesn't make me feel very confident in it, but something might be better than nothing.

Aside from the book I mentioned that lead me to accounting? Not really.

What book did you mention?

http://www.amazon.com/Test-Your-Own-Job ... 118&sr=8-1

Thanks, I have the feeling I'll be matched up to something really non-lucrative if it's strengths-based, but it couldn't hurt to check out.

Can you apply somewhere where you'd do research? They offer fellowships for that.

No, the field I'd be studying is Social Work (or, possibly, Occuptional Therapy). At least in the US, research fellowships are more common in the sciences. In most social work departments, there aren't even TA positions available. It's possible grad students in social work might be able to land an agency for their field practicum that would pay them for their time, but that's pretty rare, unless they are already employed there full-time and do their schooling part-time on the side.