Deck 9: External Selection II

Question 1

Currently, personality tests are viewed as having no validity whatsoever as selection methods.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Surveys are the most common means of assessing personality.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Validities for cognitive ability tests appear to be culturally specific, with far lower validities in the European Union relative to the United States.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Extraversion is associated with higher levels of creativity and adaptability.

Question 5

Individuals who have higher levels of agreeableness tend to have lower levels of career success and are less able to cope with conflicts.

Question 6

Discretionary assessment methods are used to reduce the candidate pool to finalists for a job.

Question 7

Evidence suggests that most applicants have relatively positive reactions towards personality testing.

Question 8

Socially desirable responding, or presenting oneself in a favorable light, doesn't end once someone takes a job.

Question 9

Measures of specific cognitive abilities do not reflect general intelligence.

Question 10

Evidence suggests that faking or enhancement almost never occurs on personality tests.

Question 11

The traits measured by Big Five personality tests are measures of factors brought about entirely by life environments, and not by genetics.

Question 12

The two major types of ability tests are aptitude and achievement.

Question 13

Personality tests and ability tests are examples of substantive assessment methods.

Question 14

Substantive assessment methods are used to reduce the applicant pool to candidates.

Question 15

There is little controversy over the use of personality measures in personnel selection.

Question 16

The Big Five personality test is used to describe emotional and cognitive traits that capture 20% of an individual's personality.

Question 17

Contingent assessment methods are used to make sure that tentative job offer recipients meet certain qualifications for the job.

Question 18

Conscientiousness is a trait that is associated with better job performance, higher job satisfaction, better leadership performance, and higher retention.

Question 19

80% of organizations use some sort of ability test in selection decisions.

Question 20

The Wonderlic Personnel test is prohibitively expensive for most organizations, because it requires long face-to-face sessions with a trained psychologist.

Question 21

The construct of "integrity" is well understood.

Question 22

The true validity of measures of general cognitive ability is roughly .50.

Question 23

Sensory/perceptual abilities tests assess the ability to detect and recognize environmental stimuli.

Question 24

Research suggests that job knowledge tests have relatively poor validity in predicting job performance.

Question 25

Performance tests and work samples are readily accepted by applicants as job relevant.

Question 26

Although applicants probably do sometimes fake their answers on integrity tests, the evidence suggests that such faking does not completely eliminate the validity of these tests in predicting job performance and deviant workplace behavior.

Question 27

Most experts agree that cognitive ability cannot be measured accurately by standardized tests.

Question 28

The major distinction between job knowledge and situational judgment tests is that the former deals with future hypothetical job situations, and the latter explicitly taps the content of the job.

Question 29

Interviewer evaluations of applicant integrity are usually very good, and experts like judges and psychologists can detect lying most of the time.

Question 30

Measures of emotional intelligence are a valuable supplement to personality tests in a selection context, because they have little similarity to personality.

Question 31

Some critics argue that because emotional intelligence (EI) is so closely related to intelligence and personality, once you control these factors, EI has nothing unique to offer.

Question 32

Physical ability tests are becoming increasingly common to screen out individuals susceptible to repetitive stress injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Question 33

Performance tests are a useful indicator of some job skills, but they need to be supplemented with other predictors because they do not have high content validity.

Question 34

A concern regarding the use of cognitive ability tests is adverse impact against African Americans.

Question 35

Performance tests and work samples assess applicants' underlying capacities and dispositions.

Question 36

The biggest reason cognitive tests are not widely used in selection is the difficulty associated with their administration.

Question 37

Cognitive ability tests are excellent predictors for executive and professional jobs, but they are of no value for entry level, clerical, or blue collar jobs.

Question 38

Integrity tests are paper-and-pencil or computerized tests that attempt to assess an applicant's honesty and moral character.

Question 39

A low-fidelity test uses realistic equipment and scenarios to simulate the actual tasks of the job.

Question 40

Individuals who have high emotional intelligence are self-aware (good at recognizing their own emotions), other aware (good at recognizing others' emotions), and good at making use of or managing this awareness.

Question 41

This personality trait is associated with more helping behaviors, teamwork, and difficulty in coping with conflicts.

A) Neuroticism
B) Extraversion
C) Agreeableness
D) Conscientiousness
E) Openness to experience

Question 42

Which of the following is true regarding the use of personality tests in the selection process?

A) Emotional stability is a much more valid predictor of job performance when it is measured narrowly.
B) The aspect of emotional stability that is more relevant to job performance is stress proneness.
C) The Core Self-Evaluations Scale has not been shown to have much validity in predicting job performance.
D) None of the above.

Question 43

This personality trait is associated with better performance, higher job satisfaction, and lower adaptability on the job.

A) Neuroticism
B) Extraversion
C) Agreeableness
D) Conscientiousness
E) Openness to experience

Question 44

Research has found that structured interviews do not add validity in predicting job performance beyond cognitive ability tests.

Question 45

Interest inventories tend to be more tied to the occupation, rather than the organization or the job.

Question 46

A typical unstructured interview often contains highly speculative questions.

Question 47

The starting point for the structured interview is the job rewards matrix.

Question 48

Which of the following is not one of the five-factor model personality traits?

A) Conscientiousness
B) Extroversion
C) General mental ability
D) Neuroticism

Question 49

The Meyers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) is an example of an interest inventory.

Question 50

When developing structured interviews, one or more questions must be constructed for each KSAO targeted for assessment by the structured interview.

Question 51

What are the most useful personality traits, in order, for selection contexts?

A) Concientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion
B) Emotional stability, conscientiousness, openness to experience
C) Agreeableness, openness to experience, extraversion
D) Extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability

Question 52

Situational interviews assess an applicant's ability to project what his/her behavior would be in the future.

Question 53

Interest inventories play a key role in organizational selection decisions.

Question 54

Applicants tend to react very negatively to the interview.

Question 55

Applicant appearance may be a source of error or bias in an unstructured interview.

Question 56

This personality trait is associated with more creativity, effective leadership, and a lower commitment to one's employer.

A) Neuroticism
B) Extraversion
C) Agreeableness
D) Conscientiousness
E) Openness to experience

Question 57

Which of the following is true regarding the Big Five personality factors?

A) They are reasonably valid in predicting job performance.
B) They represent emotional traits.
C) They represent cognitive abilities.
D) None of the above.

Question 58

The interview is the central means through which an applicant can learn about the job and organization.

Question 59

________ assessment methods are used to reduce the candidate pool to finalists for a job.

A) Initial
B) Substantive
C) Discretionary
D) Contingent

Question 60

Which of the following is true regarding research on the validity of personality tests?

A) Conscientiousness predicts performance across occupational groups.
B) Openness to experience does not predict training performance.
C) Extraversion predicts job performance for most jobs.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 61

Research has shown that most of the effect of cognitive ability on performance is due to the fact that intelligent employees have greater _____.

A) job knowledge
B) presentation skills
C) social networking capacity
D) diligence

Question 62

Which of the following is true regarding cognitive ability tests?

A) Cognitive ability tests are among the least valid methods of selection.
B) Cognitive ability tests do not generalize to a wide range of organizations and jobs.
C) There is reason to believe cognitive ability tests will be associated with positive financial returns.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 63

Which of the following is a characteristic of a typical unstructured interview?

A) It is usually carefully planned.
B) The interviewer makes a quick and final evaluation of the candidate.
C) It consists of formal, objective questioning.
D) The interviewer is highly prepared.

Question 64

Which of the following is a source of error or bias in unstructured interviews?

A) Low reliability between interviewers.
B) Nonverbal cues from interviewees influence interview ratings.
C) Primacy effects.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 65

Work samples and performance tests are useful for a broad range of jobs, although they are difficult to use in __________ jobs.

A) customer service
B) assembly
C) bank teller
D) none of the above

Question 66

Research studies have found ___________ support for the validity of job knowledge tests.

A) relatively strong
B) no support
C) very weak
D) some

Question 67

The difference between black and white test takers on cognitive ability tests has been _____.

A) demonstrated to be an artifact of question wording
B) decreasing over time
C) lower when tests are given in an open-ended format
D) both b and c

Question 68

Measures which assess an individual's capacity to function in a certain way are called ______.

A) interest inventories
B) ability tests
C) personality tests
D) knowledge tests

Question 69

Which of the following is true regarding integrity tests?

A) Their use has declined in the past decade.
B) They are used to reduce employee accidents.
C) They are usually paper-and-pencil or computerized measures.
D) The construct of integrity is well understood.

Question 70

The biggest reason why cognitive ability tests are not more widely used is _____________.

A) they are too expensive
B) they are too time-consuming
C) they are difficult to administer
D) they have an adverse impact on minorities

Question 71

Which of the following cognitive abilities appear to reflect general intelligence?

A) verbal abilities
B) quantitative abilities
C) reasoning abilities
D) All of the above are correct

Question 72

Situational judgment tests ______.

A) have very high adverse impact
B) involve applicants' descriptions of how they would behave in work scenarios
C) are based on applicants' evaluations of photographs
D) have very low validity

Question 73

Which of the following is(are) true based on research regarding interviews?

A) The validity of structured interviews is low.
B) Situational interviews are less valid than job-related interviews.
C) Panel interviews were less valid than individual interviews.
D) All of the above are true.

Question 74

The assessment method which involves the use of very realistic equipment and scenarios to simulate actual tasks of a job is called a(n) ________ test.

A) job knowledge
B) psychomotor
C) high fidelity
D) low fidelity

Question 75

The process of administering tests that place applicants in hypothetical, job-related situations and asking them to choose a course of action among several alternatives is called _____________.

A) situational judgment tests
B) behavioral implementation tests
C) work sample tests
D) Job simulation tests

Question 76

Which of the following statements is false?

A) There is little evidence that people fake their scores on personality tests in the hiring contexts
B) When individuals believe their scores are being used for selection, their observed scores tend to increase
C) Faking has a negative impact on the validity of personality tests
D) None of the above statements is false

Question 77

The type of structured interview that assesses an applicant's ability to project what his/her behavior would be in the future is the ____________ interview.

A) situational
B) experience-based
C) projective
D) KSAO-based

Question 78

Interest inventories are designed to improve person job match by assessing applicant preferences for different types of work. Research suggests that these inventories ____.

A) are about as predictive of job performance as ability tests
B) are more predictive of job performance than ability tests
C) are not strongly predictive of job performance
D) are prohibited by law

Question 79

The first step of the structured interview process is __________.

A) selecting and training interviewers
B) developing the selection plan
C) consulting the job requirements matrix
D) developing selection goals

Question 80

The most widely used test of general mental ability for selection decisions is the _____.

A) MMPI
B) Myers-Briggs
C) Wonderlic Personnel Test
D) Job Characteristics Inventory