IMPLICATIONS OF THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL NATURE OF JOB PERFORMANCE FOR THE VALIDITY OF SELECTION TESTS: MULTIVARIATE FRAMEWORKS FOR STUDYING TEST VALIDITY

Although most studies of criterion-related validity focus on univariate relationships, the complex and multidimensional nature of the performance construct and the widespread use of multiple selection devices argue in favor of multivariate frameworks for evaluating validity. Using a Monte Carlo simulation we estimated the validity of general cognitive ability tests and personality tests in predicting "job performance," where performance is conceptualized as a composite of multiple performance measures (i.e., individual job task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). The validity of a selection battery varies substantially as a function of the relative weight given to both predictors and criteria; the 95% confidence interval for validities ranged from .20 to .78. The effective weights given to performance dimensions accounted for 34% of the variance in selection battery validities; depending on precisely how "performance" is defined, the same test battery can have relatively high or relatively low levels of validity. Our model suggests that the way an organization defines job performance is a source of true and important variability in validities, and that the validity of selection tests for predicting complex performance criteria may show considerably less generalizability that current metaanalysis of univariate validities would suggest.     

FURTHER TESTS OF THE SCHMIDT-HUNTER BAYESIAN VALIDITY GENERALIZATION PROCEDURE1

Using an improved version of the Bayesian validity generalization model presented in Schmidt and Hunter (1977), this study showed that most of the between-study variation in observed validity coefficients of various aptitude and ability tests for two types of clerical work and for the job of first-line supervisor is artifactual in nature. These results cast additional doubt on the traditional belief that employment test validities are situationally specific. In addition, the results showed that generalization of validities to new settings was justified even where the hypothesis of situational specificity could not be rejected under the standards used in this study. Implications for the use of aptitude and ability tests in selection and for theory development in industrial-organizational psychology are discussed.     

THE VALIDITY and FAIRNESS OF EMPLOYMENT and EDUCATIONAL TESTS FOR HISPANIC AMERICANS: A REVIEW and ANALYSIS

This study examined the questions of whether employment and educational tests demonstrate either differential validity or test unfairness to Hispanic Americans relative to the majority group. Relevant data from 19 published and unpublished studies formed the basis of the review and analysis. Results for employment tests, based on a very large amount of data, indicated that differential validity occurs no more frequently than would be expected on the basis of chance plus the operation of various statistical artifacts. The frequencies of slope and intercept differences between Hispanic and majority regressions were also within the chance range. A similar pattern of results obtained for the more limited amount of data available on educational tests. Taken together, the results provide strong evidence that tests are neither differentially valid for, nor unfair to, Hispanics. These findings are consistent with the results of previous studies of test validity and fairness for blacks.     

青少年自我价值感量表构念效度的验证性因素分析

用自编的青少年自我价值感量表对我国 9个大城市的大中学校的 4 931名学生进行了再测量 ,以其中的2 4 2 0名学生的数据进行一阶因素模型的比较分析 ,另外 2 5 11名学生的数据进行二阶因素模型的验证性分析。结果显示 ,我们提出的自我价值感的多层次多维度模型是合理。该模型包括总体自我价值感、一般自我价值感和特殊自我价值感三个层次 ;总体自我价值感抽象程度最高 ,其次是一般自我价值感包含社会取向和个人取向两种 ,抽象程度最低的是特殊自我价值感表现为生理的、心理的、人际的、道德的和家庭的自我价值感 5个具体方面同时也表现为社会取向和个人取向两种。该量表包含 5 6个题项从不同的抽象层次和具体方面对所构建的自我价值感模型进行测量 ,具有较好的构念效度     

汽车司机安全驾驶性向测验的建构

本研究之目的是建构适用于我国的汽车司机安全驾驶性向测验。经各种检验结果表明,无论是能力测验还是个性测验,它们在信度和效度上均达到了要求。因此,为进一步标准化奠定了基础。     

IMPLICATIONS OF TRAIT-ACTIVATION THEORY FOR EVALUATING THE CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF ASSESSMENT CENTER RATINGS

Assessment centers have often been criticized for lacking evidence supporting the construct validity of dimension ratings. This study examines whether the poor convergence of assessment center ratings is a result of correlating ratings from exercises that differ in the extent that behavior relevant to personality traits can be observed. Using data from a promotional assessment center for law enforcement officers ( n = 79), the convergence of assessment center ratings was evaluated within the context of the five factor model by comparing the average within-dimension correlation of ratings from exercises that allowed for more opportunity to observe trait-relevant behavior to the average of those involving exercises where there was less opportunity. For each personality trait, ratings from exercises judged by experts to be high in trait-activation potential displayed stronger convergence (mean r = .30) than did ratings from exercises that were low in activation potential for that trait (mean r = .15). Implications for evaluating the construct validity of assessment centers are discussed along with future directions for classifying exercises based on situational similarity.     

军用能力倾向测验的产生、发展和贡献

军用能力倾向测验是为军事需要服务的能力倾向测验,它有独立的产生和发展过程并在整个能力倾向测验领域起关键作用。在特殊能力倾向的效度研究,能力理论的验证,发现新的能力和测验手段上的创新等方面均有重要贡献。     

THE VALIDITY OF MORAL THEORIES

Abstract. We can usefully draw an analogy between ethics and science, despite the significant differences between them. We can then see the ways in which moral theories can indeed be "tested," not by empirical experience but by moral experience. This can be expected to lead to rival moral theories, but in science also we have rival theories. I argue that we should demand more than coherence of our moral theories, as we do of our scientific theories. I try to show how the "testing" of moral theories can be carried out and how this can allow us to accept some moral theories as valid.     

ON THE VALIDITY OF THE RORSCHACH TEST

Rorschach protocols of 20 persons (normals, depressives, and schizophrenics) were analysed, using the inverted, or Q , method of factoring. Three factors emerged from the analysis and corresponded to the three psychiatric categories. Groups of items, allegedly measuring the isolated factors, were applied to a second population of 42 persons resulting in validity values of an encouraging magnitude. Finally, published protocols are cited, together with a list of discriminating items and a score matrix based on such items, so that further verification can be made by the reader.     

THE FUTURE OF CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY1

As a result of rejection by personnel psychologists of the erroneous law of small numbers and of the adoption of correct inferential procedures, the future of criterion-related validity promises to be bright. Probable future developments include: (a) widespread appreciation of the low statistical power characteristic of small samples; (b) rejection of the traditional belief that validities are situationally specific; (c) widespread validity generalization based on new methods; (d) research demonstrations that rational estimates of validity are often superior in accuracy to empirical estimates; (e) widespread acceptance of research findings showing that single-group and differential validity by race are artifactual rather than substantive in origin and that test unfairness by race is a nonproblem; (f) increased application of decision-theoretic dollar utility analyses to selection programs; and (g) progress in the establishment of general principles and theories about trait-performance relations in the world of work.     

NOTE ON THE VALIDITY OF THE POWER LAW

On the basis of previous experimental findings, it is argued that the power law is not based on a true (subjective) ratio scale, but on a quasi-ratio scale. Hence, and in spite of the results of the cross-modality matching, the validity of the power law, as well as the validity of models and equations in which a subjective scale is involved, is doubted. It is further indicated that the validity of Brown's law can, under special conditions, be tested by the relation between subjective variables of velocity, length and time. Finally, the relation between the power law and Luce's theorem is discussed briefly.