The Use of the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) for Establishing the Job Component Validity of Tests

The Position Analysis Questionnaire PAQ is a structured job analysis questionnaire that provides for analysis of individual jobs in terms of each of 187 job elements. On the basis of a series of principal components analyses of PAQ data a number of job dimensions were identified. Scores for jobs on these job dimensions were used as the basis for predicting test-related criterion values of incumbents on jobs, these studies employing data from the 9 tests of the General Aptitude Test Battery GATB of the U.S. Employment Service. In other studies, attribute profiles of the job elements of the PAQ were used as predictors of the test-related criterion values. The use of PAQ job dimension scores and the attribute profile data indicate substantial potential for using a structured job analysis procedure such as the PAQ to derive reasonably valid estimates of aptitude requirements of jobs. This generalized approach has been referred to as job component validity. The present research is directed toward further testing of the use of the PAQ for the purpose of establishing the job component validity of tests, except that it uses the prediction of test-related criterion values based on commercially- available tests, as contrasted with those based on GATB tests.