Ch 4: Personality and Abilities Part 1 – Feb. 5, 2009

Personality Unique and stable pattern of behaviors, thoughts, emotions Interactionist approach – behavior result of personality and situation When does it have the most influence? How is personality measured? Objective – Projective –

Controversy: Personality in Selection 3 points – historically, conventional wisdom in psych was that personality measures… 1) 2) 3) What is the current view of personality in the I/O literature?

Taxonomies Terminological confusion abounds! 1 answer is Big 5 model Many researchers agree most measures assess at least the “Big 5” Check to make sure you assess these 5 reliably, validly… Anything extra is optional Accepted Big 5 measure is “NEO”

Big 5 Model 5 key dimensions of personality (know def of each…) Openness to Experience – Conscientiousness – Extraversion – Agreeableness – Neuroticism (or its opposite, positively-termed “emotional stability”) –

Does personality predict job performance? As recently as ’90, most said ‘no’ Barrick & Mount (1991) What did this study suggest? Later studies found C & A predict job perf about as well as what other construct? (correlation range?)

Cont.. Conscientiousness most highly related to job performance (of the Big 5 dimensions) related to …? But jobs where this isn’t good? And why?

Faking personality scores What is the controversy? Hogan & Hogan’s view: (they publish the HPI) Some items are transparent & easy to fake, is this a problem? How can methodology be used to assess faking? How do corrections for faking affect validity? Their conclusion?

Levin & Zickar (2002) “Self-presentation, lies, and bullshit” What is their issue with the Hogans’ conclusions? Levin & Zickar distinctions: Field studies compared those instructed to fake w/those instructed to be honest: What did they find?

Other Personality Constructs Positive/Negative Affectivity (PA/NA) – stable mood Strong relationship with job satisfaction Is there such a construct as group affect (or affective tone?) How could we measure this?

Abilities Capacity to perform a task Intellectual abilities Cognitive ability (g): general intelligence, reasoning Traditionally most importance placed on this (IQ tests) Highly related to job perf Practical Intelligence – devise effective ways to get things done

Will ‘g’ & conscientiousness do the job? Focus on precise matching of applicant abilities w/those required by job? Or focus on conscientiousness & ‘g’? Distinguish between dependent variables used in studies In past, focused on ? Current focus shifting to ? Final choice of which to use may depend on…

When to focus on g & cons. Focus on g & cons when… 1) 2) 3) Otherwise focus on precise matching of skills with job