The MMPI in Police Officer Selection

Abstract

Following the historic Griggs case of 1974, in which the Supreme Court found discrimination by effect as Constitutionally unacceptable as discrimination by intent, current Federal guidelines for the use of psychological tests in employee selection mandate that only those instruments whose predictive validity with respect to a specific job in aspecific organization has been demonstrated may be employed as gateway criteria and that, in particular, subjective judgment is an unacceptable basis for selection or rejection of candidates; that position has been reinforced even in the rulings of state courts on the use of psychological assessment in the selection of police officer candidates. This paper summarizes recent findings on the use of the MMPl in the selection of candidates for appointment as police officers and their subsequent evaluation, both pre-service and in-service. MMPl scales which measure defensiveness (K) and hysteria (Hy) have been reported as positively correlated with ratings of performance, while scales which measure "social desirability" (L), psychopathic deviation (Pd), paranoia (Pa), and mania (Ma) have been reported as negatively correlated. Recent findings are silent with respect to the relationship between scores on other scales (including Sc, which measures overt schizophrenic symptomatolopy) and performance evaluation. The dilemma created by predicting to and from truncated data sets is outlined.

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