Psychological Assessment of Military Federal Agents Using the MMPI-2: A Look at Employment Selection and Performance Prediction.

This study examined the utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 MMPI-2 for employment selection and performance prediction in a sample of 133 military law enforcement investigators. An unscreened group who completed the MMPI-2 but were hired without examination of the test results was compared with a screened group whose results had been part of the hiring decision. In the first analysis, the MMPI-2 profiles of the two groups were compared. Although the unscreened group tended towards higher mean scores on the majority of scales, greater variability, and a higher frequency of elevated scores, these trends did not reach statistical significance. Secondly, the two groups were compared on three measures of job performance a skills composite score, number of positive distinctions, and number of negative distinctions. The unscreened group tended towards greater negative distinctions, although this trend likewise did not reach statistical significance. In the final comparison, predictive links between the MMPI-2 protocols and job performance criteria were explored using two subsets of the total sample. No MMPI-2 scales were significantly linked to positive distinctions, five scales were related to negative distinctions, and two scales were correlated with the skills composite score. However, the correlations were of insufficient magnitude to be used as individual predictors. It seems most likely that previous non-psychological screening substantially reduced the magnitude of predictor-criterion relationships. Also, the small and unequal sample size limited statistical power. Nevertheless, this study described a unique sample of agents permitted to work without benefit of psychological test results--a methodological ideal.