ABSTRACT
The present study investigated the use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2 L (Lie) scale in the preemployment selection of police officers. In a prior article, Weiss, Davis, Rostow, and Kinsman (2003) found that high L scale scores are associated with a number of performance problems in law enforcement officers. These investigators recommended a L scale raw score cutoff of 8 when making hiring decisions. The present study sought to explore the usefulness of this recommendation by analyzing data from 4348 officers who had taken the MMPI-2 as a condition of preemployment and had follow-up data on performance provided by their supervisors. Results indicated that officers with L scale raw scores of 8 or higher had significantly more performance problems than those who had scores of 7 or below. Similar results were obtained when cut points of 7 and 9 were used. These results were robust insofar as they remained significant when other factors potentially related to the L scale, particularly level of education, ethnicity, and scores on the 10 MMPI-2 Clinical Scales, were controlled for in the analyses. Implications of these findings for police psychological evaluations are discussed.
Subject(s)
Data Interpretation, Statistical , Employee Performance Appraisal/statistics & numerical data , MMPI/statistics & numerical data , Personnel Selection/methods , Police/standards , Self Concept , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Multivariate Analysis , Reproducibility of Results , United States , Virtues , Young AdultABSTRACT
Over the past 2 decades, increasing attention has been directed at the relationship between individual differences and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). However, most of this research has focused on personality variables as potential predictors of CWB; surprisingly little research has investigated the link between counterproductivity and cognitive ability. This study presents the first focal investigation of the cognitive ability-CWB relationship. The authors measured organizational and interpersonal CWB using organizational records of formally recorded incidents (e.g., destruction of property, physical violence). In a predictive study, for a large sample of law enforcement job applicants, a standardized psychometric test of cognitive ability predicted CWB, whereas educational attainment did not.
