Career Selection - Tests used to help individuals select a career path

Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory

• Matches interests held by those employed in 207 occupation titles
• 325 items to which respondents answerlike dislike or indifferent

Kuder Occupational Interest Survey

• Presents the test taker with 100 triads, or sets of three activities
• Subject must choose the one the prefer the most

Career Assessment Inventory

• The working persons interest inventory
• Geared toward individuals without a complete college education
• Yields 6 general scales (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional)
• Gives interest scores for 89 occupational scales

Job Selection/Matching

• Focuses on matching skills and personality factors with jobs
• Begins with a Job Analysis, a description of the characteristics of the job

5 ways of performing a Job Analysis:

1. Checklists - types of behavior are rated in terms of importance or amount of time spent engaged in certain activities
2. Critical Incidents - observable behaviors that differentiate successful from unsuccessful employees
3. Observation - Open to bias
4. Interviews - Ask workers about what they consider to be important to the job. Also open to bias an inaccurate reporting.
5. Questionnaires - Inexpensive, but yields limited data; the process is self-selecting

The Use of Psychological Tests in Employment Settings

• Many occupations require this for reasons of public safety
• Controversy over whether they can be used in occupations where public safety is not involved

Measuring Job Performance

• Production Measures - counts of work products
• Personnel Data - absenteeism, rewards, accidents, etc.
• Work Samples - drawn from actual job or simulated task
• Rating Scales - Using a checklist or other scale to judge performance

Personality Testing Assumptions:

• Personality is stable
• Personality traits affect work performance
• Tests do not discriminate unfairly
• Tests protect the employer's right to not hire incompetent, insubordinate people
• Well constructed, sound tests are available

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Designed to measure and rank people on 4 personality traits - Sensing, feeling, thinking, and intuition
• Most individuals score right at the cut off for making a classification
• More than half the scores change in less than one month
• Factor analysis does not confirm the presence of 4 personality factors
• Criterion validity is in the .25 range when compared to manager behavior (the area where the test is used most)
• It is impossible to get a bad score

Other tests and interviews

• Attempt to quantify work related attitudes, potential for job satisfaction, level of organizational commitment, honesty and motivation

ADA and testing

• Prohibits discrimination based on disability (including mental disorders)
• Prevents employers from using tests that assess psychological functioning
• Exception: When psychological functioning has a proven link with job performance