Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The Soroka v. Dayton-Hudson case is popularly known as the “Target” case because it was the Target Department Stores against whom the case was filed as a class action by S. Soroka on September 7, 1989, in the Superior Court, Alameda County, California Involved in the case as a major issue were the charges by the plaintiffs that the Rotlgers Condensed CPI-MMPI (RCCM), used in the pre-employment screening of applicants for Store Security Officer, violated the applicants' rights to privacy which are protected by the Constitution of the State of California. Also sought by the plaintiffs were sanctions against unfair discriminatory application of tests and subjugation of the applicants to inquiries regarding sexual orientation and religious beliefs. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement on September 23, 1993. The substantive issues relating to sound test theory and test practices are discussed along with a review of the court proceedings.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aiken

L. S.

West

S. A.

Sechrest

Reno

R. R.

(1990) Graduate training in statistics, methodology, and measurement in psychology: a survey of Ph.D. programs in North America. American Psychologist, 45, 721–734.

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement Used in Education. (1954) Technical recommendations for psychological tests and diagnostic techniques. Psychological Bulletin, 51(Supplement), 13–28.

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1966) Standards for educational and psychological tests and manuals. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1974) Standards for educational and psychological tests. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education. (1985) Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

American Educational Research Association and National Council on Measurement Used in Education. (1955) Technical Recommendations for Achievement Tests. Washington, DC: National Educational Association.

American Psychological Association. (1953) Ethical standards of psychologists. Section 5.4. Publishing and using psychological tests and diagnostic aids. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

American Psychological Association. (1992) Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Brayfield

A. H.

(Ed.) (1965) Testing and public policy. American Psychologist, 20, 857–1005.

10.

Camara

Merenda

P. F.

(In press) Using personality tests in pre-employment screening: issues raised in “Soroka v. Dayton-Hudson Corporation.” Psychology, Public Policy and Law.

11.

Eyde

L. D.

(August, 1993) Identifying and preventing the misuse of testing. Paper presented at symposium on “Who Cares if Tests are Misused? We do!” 101st Annual Convention of APA, Toronto, Canada.

12.

Guilford

J. P.

(1954) Psychometric methods. (2nd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.

13.

Gulliksen

(1950) Theory of mental tests. New York: Wiley.

14.

Hathaway

S. R.

(1964) MMPI: professional use by professional people. American Psychologist, 19, 204–210.

15.

Jackson

D. N.

Kovacheff

J. D.

(1993) Personality questionnaires in selection. Privacy issues and the Soroka case. Industrial Psychologist, 30, 45–50.

16.

Joint Committee on Testing Practices: Eyde

L. D.

Robertson

G. J.

Krug

S. E.

Moreland

K. S.

Robertson

A. G.

Shewan

C. M.

Porch

B. E.

Hammer

A. L.

Primoff

E. S.

(1993) Responsible test use: case studies for assessing human behavior. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

17.

Lord

F. M.

Novick

M. R.

(1968) Statistical theories of mental test scores. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

18.

Merenda

P. F.

(1994) The settlement of the “Target” case and its aftermath. Psychological Reports, 75, 1485–1486.

19.

Nunnally

(1978) Psychometric theory. (2nd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.

20.

Rodgers

D. A.

(1966) Rodgers Condensed CPI-MMPI. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

21.

Soroka v. Dayton Hudson Corporation at/Cal. Rptr. 2ck 77 (Cal.app./Dist. 1991).

22.

Stark

(1958) Executive personality and psychological testing. Current Economic Comment, 1958(May), 15–32.

23.

Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. (1978) Federal Register, Vol. 43, No. 166-Friday, August 25, 1978, pp. 38296–38309.

24.

Wainer

Braun

H. J.

(Eds.) (1988) Test validity. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

25.

Whyte

W. H.

Jr. (1956) The organization man. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Substantive Issues in the Soroka V. Dayton-Hudson Case

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References