Ψlogical
Testing…

Chapter 18
Industrial & Business Settings

🧼🚿 Cleaning up 🚿🧼

Lectures:

• Dingos present next Tuesday!! 🦊
  • rubric available here
• Pacing down to 1 chapter per week

Project:

• data?

🔭🌠ASTEROID YR4 PANIC METER!!!🌌💥

Industrial & Business Settings

Personnel Psychology

focus is on selection of individuals into positions at work – typically this is informed by pre–employment testing

• selection also takes place internally (e.g., promotion)
• selecting “out” also informed by tests (e.g., evaluation of employee performance)

Note

…aka Industrial Psychology – this is the historical genesis for the broader field of Industrial & Organizational Psychology¹

1. one of the reasons I/O so closely tied with psychological testing

the Employment Interview

Very common with US jobs – typically only a subset of applicants are chosen to interview

• opportunity to meet each other
• both sides have incentive to be deceptive:
  • make company attractive
  • make self look positive

• Structured – considered a “test” (standardized content, scoring & procedure)

• Unstructured – traditional unscripted conversation

Current procedures

Before tests are used in an employment context, I/O Psychologists often first consider how well the current procedures are working

• “dichotomous” decision here is hire or not hire
  • possibly informed by cut score (minimally acceptable threshold)
• also dichotomize job performance (good vs. bad)

Can look at combination of “prediction” and “outcome” just like we do with statistics (decision table):

Base Rates & Hit Rates

“Hit” rate is the percent of cases in the “Good Decision” categories

“Base” rate is the percent of cases currently considered successful¹

1. % of “good” employees that are currently being identified or % of days it actually snows

Taylor–Russell Tables

Can help with the decision of whether or not to try something different regarding employee selection (e.g., is the cost of doing something different worth it?)¹

• old idea that validity alone is insufficient when considering whether or not to adopt a selection test (Taylor & Russell, 1939)

• selection ratio is: \(\frac{N_{hires}}{N_{applicants}}\)
  • using valid test has more utility if selection ratio is low (closer to 0 than 1)

1. the “something different” is typically the purchase, administration, and application of a new test

Utility Theory 💰💰💰

Modern adoption of the Taylor & Russell (1939) ideas – decision of whether or not to adopt a test should be based on more information than just “is it a good test?”

• several different calculations exist, but most present “utility” of using test in 💲 units
• great idea, but not as popular with clients as we all thought it should be 🤔

• taking base rates, selection ratios, test validity, & various costs into consideration, how much money would be saved if the test were to be used?

Value–added assessments

not everything Personnel Psychologists do is selection into the organization – performance appraisal is another common function

• value–added approach to performance appraisal bases administrative decisions (promote, raise, demote) on work outcomes
  • outcomes might include subordinate performance

• statistical modeling can project expected output & administrative decisions made based on actual vs. expected values

Incremental Validity \(\Delta\)

unique information the focal test gives you (“above & beyond” other information)

• typically assessed via hierarchical regression:
  • procedure that occurs in steps
  • Step #2 statistic - Step #1 statistic = \(\Delta\) statistic
    • \(\Delta\) = incremental validity

• merely knowing 2 validities from 2 tests is not sufficient:

Myers–Briggs Type Indicator

Somewhat notorious assessment within Psychology – extremely unpopular with I/O Psychologists

• based on Jung (1921)’s theory of psychological types
• introversion – extraversion a primary distinction

• additionally, there are 4 main ways people experience the world:
  • sensing, intuiting, feeling, thinking

Note

Briggs & Myers added the 4th dimension (judging/perceiving)

Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT)

quick (12–minute) g–loaded “mental ability” test

• used for many years to help inform NFL draft selection¹
  • many other tests (physical & psychological) also administered at NFL Scouting Combine

• many different forms exist because of security concerns
• traditional construction – starts with easier questions and gets progressively more difficult

1. NFL stopped using it as a formal component within the Combine in 2022

Work Environment

typically assessed via measures of culture or climate

• Culture – shared values & practices within an organization
• Climate – shared perceptions & beliefs that employees have of organization

Job Analysis

methodical process to describe characteristics of the job (e.g., checklist, interviews, critical incidents)

• identifies tasks & duties (responsibilities) that define the job
  • typically goes into job description & performance assessment

• often also identifies knowledge, skill, & abilities that help performance within function
  • typically informs which pre-employment tests to use

Person–Situation Interaction

a perspective that is focused on how different psychological characteristics interact with different environments to explain human behavior

• just because someone is “smart” or “nice” doesn’t always explain how they act
• just because someone is at church or sporting event doesn’t always explain how they act
  • interaction = “it depends”

____________ validity reflects the unique value provided by an additional test

• incremental
• incidental
• incredible
• influential

A “correct rejection” goes into the ________ category

• hit rate
• base rate
• utility theory
• selection ratio

Number of positions being filled divided by the number of applicants is the ___________

• selection ratio
• hit rate
• base rate
• utility theory

The construct most likely being assessed with the Wonderlic is _______

• g
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Motivation

The methodical process applied to understand “what workers do” is called __________

• job analysis
• utility analysis
• incremental validity
• performance assessment

Assessment groups:

Starting 4/24 (Thursdays):

Al Pacas🦙	Belugas🐳	Camels🐫	Dingos🦊	Elephants🐘
Vanessa A	Mae F	Sarah J	Sarah M	Hannah T
Sabina B	Alaina G	Thomas J	Raelyn R	William T
Nathan B	Payton H	Grace K	Ellen R	Jennifer T
Maritza B	Elly J	Grace L	Rachel S	Lila W
???	???	???	4/29	???

References

Jung, C. G. (1921). Psychologische typen. Zürich, Rascher.

Taylor, H. C., & Russell, J. T. (1939). The relationship of validity coefficients to the practical effectiveness of tests in selection: Discussion and tables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 23(5), 565–578.