NCJ Number
208142
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 31 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2004 Pages: 649-675
Date Published
December 2004
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This study used meta-analysis to assess the overall validity of personality measures as predictors of law enforcement officer job performance, to investigate the moderating effects of study design features on this relationship, and to compare effects for commonly used instruments in this setting.
Abstract
Data for this study were obtained from scholarly journals, books, conference presentations, dissertations, theses, and unpublished reports from practitioners and test publishers. Findings show a modest but statistically significant link between personality test results and the job performance of tested law enforcement officers. Prediction was strongest for the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and weaker for the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). One possible reason for the superior performance of the CPI in the test setting of law enforcement employment is that its design focuses on measuring normal personality traits; whereas, the MMPI and IPI are designed to identify psychopathology, deviant personality traits, and maladaptive behavior. Personality measures were found to be somewhat better at predicting current job performance than future job performance. The authors advise that not every personality test scale can predict officer performance; practitioners should only interpret the few scales that have a clear relationship to law enforcement tasks and interactions. The most important objective of using personality measures in the selection of law enforcement officers is to reduce the likelihood that a dangerous person will be hired. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed. 4 tables and 99 references