NCJ Number
231942
Date Published
2010
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines the research investigating whether personality inventories provide consistent success in predicting police officer performance.
Abstract
The chapter begins with a description of the key issues that need to be addressed regarding the research findings on the validity of personality inventories. These issues deal with personality constructs versus individual tests, tests of psychopathology versus tests of normal personality, and spurious findings versus consistency. Review of the research revealed four common methods in which scores from personality inventories have been used to predict police officer performance. These methods, correlation of individual scales, regression of multiple scales, use of scale patterns, and overall pattern interpretation, are described in detail. The results of the meta-analysis review found that for validity tests of psychopathology, none of the individual test scales significantly predicted discipline problems or exceptional behavior. In addition, measures of psychopathology were not shown to be successful in predicting law enforcement performance, and scale patterns were more effective at predicting police performance than individual scales. For validity of tests of normal psychopathology, the review found that several of the individual scales did a reasonable job of predicting academy performance. The personality constructs, in general, were found to be poor predictors of law enforcement performance ratings and disciplinary problems. Directions for future research are discussed. Tables and references