Special Applications

1
Chapter 15

• Special Applications

2
Coverage will include

• Environmental Assessment
• Behavioral Assessment
• Integrity Testing
• Course Evaluation
• Moral Development

3
Environmental Assessment

• SES indexes (usually based on occupation and
  education only)
• The HOME Scale (based on observer ratings of the
  home environment)
• Moos Social Climate Scales (10 scales that
  people complete who are experiencing the
  environment being rated)
• Includes real environment, ideal environment, and
  expected environment

4
Behavioral Assessment

• Instead of asking questions and getting indirect
  information, observe the behavior directly
• Think of overt behaviors rather than underlying
  traits
• To measure a particular kind of behavior, get as
  close to that behavior as possible. Note
  before and after behaviors as well
• Relate the measurement to what you want to do
  with the information

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Methods of Behavioral Assessment

• Direct or naturalistic observation
• Analogue Behavioral Observation simulates direct
  observation. Includes situational tests and
  role-playing
• Behavioral Interviewing concentrates on details
  of specific behaviors
• Self-monitoring and self-report (e.g., Beck
  Depression Inventory)
• Cognitive-Behavioral Assessment treats thoughts
  as behaviors
• Physiological measures

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Integrity (or Honesty) Testing

• Originally designed to detect theft in the
  workplace
• Broadened to include a wider variety of
  counterproductive behaviors in the workplace
• Two traditional approaches
• Polygraph
• Paper and pencil tests

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Polygraph

• Polygraph test includes physiological
  measurements, questions asked, preparation given
  to examinee, and expertise of the polygrapher.
• Use can be event-related or event-free
• Questions can be relevant, irrelevant, or control
  type
• Laws now limit use in employment screening for
  non-governmental use

8
Paper Pencil Integrity Tests

• Overt integrity tests ask directly about acts of
  dishonesty and attitudes about dishonesty
• Personality-oriented integrity tests tap the
  usual personality dimensions focusing on the
  employment context
• Research shows reasonable validity for tests that
  have undergone professional development
• General mental ability is still best predictor of
  job success. Combining with integrity tests
  increases validity while decreasing racial
  differences in selection process (since ability
  testing shows racial differences and integrity
  testing does not).

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Issues with Integrity Testing

• Low base rate of theft makes it difficult to get
  good test validity
• Hard to define integrity but necessary for test
  development
• How fakeable are the tests?
• Testing may invade privacy

10
Course Evaluation Findings

• Student ratings of instruction are quite reliable
• Teaching ability has 5-7 reasonably independent
  dimensions, along with an overall dimension
  (similar to g in ability testing)
• Course difficulty is only weakly related to
  course ratings in other dimensions. However,
  expected grade is related to ratings.
• Student ratings correlate with other measures of
  teaching quality

11
Moral Development

• Kohlbergs Moral Judgment Interview asks
  questions about 9 moral dilemmas using one-on-one
  interview.
• Has excellent inter-rated agreement and temporal
  stability in scores, but little validity
  evidence.
• Defining Issues Test (Rest) is a
  group-administered test of moral reasoning.
• DIT has moderately good reliability for the major
  scores. Seems to accurately reflect Kohlbergs
  theory.