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1. Police Selection Procedures: A set of procedures used by the police to either screen out undesirable
candidates or select in desirable candidates.
Characteristics may relate to an applicants physical fitness, cognitive abilities, personality and performance on job
related tasks
2. Lewis Termin and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test: Tested the intelligence of 30 police
and firefighter applicants
Led to the recommendation of a minimum IQ test of 80 for future applicants
3. RCMP Police Aptitude Test: A six factor personality questionnaire, measures conscientiousness
4. Stages of developing police selection instruments (2): 1. Job Analysis Stage
2. Construction and validation Stage
5. Job Analysis Stage: A procedure for identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that make a good
police officer.
First stage of development for police selection instruments.
May be conducted by an organizational psychologist working in conjunction with a police agency, using survey methods
or observational techniques., or simply by asking members to list qualities they feel are essential.
6. Construction and Validation Stage: The second stage of developing police selection instruments,
accesses the extent to which the instrument measures relevant KSAs and its validity in selection.
7. Problems at Job Analysis Stage (3): 1. KSAs may not be stable over time, making it difficult to
determine which selection procedures should be testing for
2. Different types of policing jobs require different KSAs
3. Individuals may disagree over which KSAs are important
8. Typical essential KSAs (7): Honesty, Reliability, sensitivity to others, good communication skills, high
motivation, problem solving skills, team player.
9. Predictive Validity: The extent to which scores on a test predict scores on some other measure.
Relates if there is a relationship between scores obtained on a selection instrument and measures of actual job
performance.
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, Forensic Psychology Textbook (Pozzulo, Bennell & Forth) Exam 1 Chapter 2
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10. Validity Coefficients meanings: +1 : very strong positive relationship, performance on instrument
and ratings of performance increase together
-1 : very strong negative relationship, performance on instrument and ratings of performance decrease together
between: intermediate level of predictive validity
0: no or little relationship
11. Problems at Construction and Validity Stage: 1. How the measure of performance is done
has an impact on the validity of the selection instrument
2. Little evidence to suggest that one of these measures are better or worse than the other
3. Measures of performance does not generalize to on the job performance
4. ratings from different individuals can contradict each other
12. Selection Interview: In recruiting police officers, an interview used by the police to determine the extent
to which an applicant possesses the KSAs deemed important for the job
Common, semi structured interview with a preset list of questions.
13. Selection Interview Validity/Problems: 1. Vary from agency to agency
2. depend on the job being applied for
3. Can sometimes predict job performance, but has mixed results.
4. More structured the interview, the better the validity.
14. Cognitive Ability Test: Procedure for measuring verbal, mathematical, memory and reasoning abilities.
Used regularly, RCMP Police Aptitude Test is an example.
15. Cognitive Ability Test Validity/Problems: 1. Tend to be better at predicting performance during
police academy training compared to future on the job performance, due to personality variables which can change.
16. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): An assessment instrument for
identifying people with psychological problems, not originally designed for police officers but later repurposed.
17. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Validity/Problems: 1.
possesses little power in prediction academy performance. on the job behavior
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