On the Continued Misinterpretation of Stereotype Threat as Accounting for Black-White Differences on Cognitive Tests

Steele and Aronson (1995) showed that stereotype threat affects the test performance of stereotyped groups. A careful reading shows that threat affects test performance but does not eliminate Black–White mean score gaps. Sackett et al. (2004) reviewed characterization of this research in scholarly articles, textbooks, and popular press, and found that many mistakenly inferred that removing stereotype threats eliminated the Black– White performance gap. We examined whether the rate of mischaracterization of Steele and Aronson had decreased in the 15 years since Sackett et al. highlighted the common misinterpretation. We found that the misinterpretation rate dropped from 90.9% to 62.8% in journal articles and from 55.6% to 41.18% in textbooks, though this is only statistically significant in journal articles

Personnel selection: a longstanding story of impact at the individual, firm, and societal level

This paper discusses how and why the field of personnel selection has made a long-lasting mark in work and organizational psychology. We start by outlining the importance and relevance of the well-established analytical framework (criterion-related validity, incremental validity, utility) for examining the impact of selection at the individual (job performance) level. We also document the substantive criterion-related validities of most common selection procedures on the basis of cumulative meta-analytic research. Next, we review more recent research that investigated the impact of selection at the more macro organizational (firm performance) level. We show that the positive relationship between selection and performance at the individual-level translates to the organizational-level. Finally, we draw upon a longstanding project on situational judgement tests to exemplify the tradition of implementing interventions for improving the way selection is done in specific settings. We reflect on the reasons for this programme's impact on the selection process and its decision makers. We end with recommendations to researchers in personnel selection and other fields for increasing the impact of their research projects

Integrity Testing for Personnel Selection

This presentation by Paul Sackett of the University of Minnesota was given to the Workshop on Assessment of 21st Century Skills, held in January 2011. In it, Sackett discusses integrity tests, both personality-based and conditional reasoning varieties, counterproductive work behavior (CWB), what the tests predict, their accuracy, and changes in them over the last 30 years

Situational judgment tests in high-stakes settings: Issues and strategies with generating alternate forms

This study used principles underlying item generation theory to posit competing perspectives about which features of situational judgment tests might enhance or impede consistent measurement across repeat test administrations. This led to 3 alternate-form development approaches (random assignment, incident isomorphism, and item isomorphism). The effects of these approaches on alternate-form consistency, mean score changes, and criterion-related validity were examined in a high-stakes context (N 3,361). Generally, results revealed that even small changes in the context of the situations presented resulted in significantly lower alternate-form consistency. Conversely, placing more constraints on the alternate-form development process proved beneficial. The contributions, implications, and limitations of these results for the development of situational judgment tests and high-stakes testing are discussed

Personnel selection

We review developments in personnel selection since the previous review by Hough & Oswald (2000) in the Annual Review of Psycholog. We organize the review around a taxonomic structure of possible bases for improved selection, which includes (a) better understanding of the criterion domain and criterion measurement, (b) improved measurement of existing predictor methods or constructs, (c) identification and measurement of new predictor methods or constructs, (d) improved identification of features that moderate or mediate predictor-criterion relationships, (e) clearer understanding of the relationship between predictors or between predictors and criteria (e.g., via meta-analytic synthesis), (f) identification and prediction of new outcome variables, (g) improved ability to determine how well we predict the outcomes of interest, (b) improved understanding of subgroup differences, fairness, bias, and the legal defensibility, (i) improved administrative ease with which selection systems can be used, (j) improved insight into applicant reactions, and (k) improved decision-maker acceptance of selection systems

The effects of response instructions on situational judgment test performance and validity in a high-stakes context

This study fills a key gap in research on response instructions in situational judgment tests (SJTs). The authors examined whether the assumptions behind the differential effects of knowledge and behavioral tendency SJT response instructions hold in a large-scale high-stakes selection context (i.e., admission to medical college). Candidates (N = 2,184) were randomly assigned to a knowledge or behavioral tendency response instruction SJT, while SJT content was kept constant. Contrary to prior research in low-stakes settings, no meaningfully important differences were found between mean scores for the response instruction sets. Consistent with prior research, the SJT with knowledge instructions correlated more highly with cognitive ability than did the SJT with behavioral tendency instructions. Finally, no difference was found between the criterion-related validity of the SJTs under the two response instruction sets