The National Police Officer Selection Test is a basic skills test of four subsections: mathematics, reading, grammar, and incident report writing. The purpose was to examine the temporal stability of the test in a sample of job applicants. Test-retest reliability coefficients were computed for a sample of 1215 police officer applicants. Reliability was evident at 17 different test-retest intervals. Also, the reliability of test did not differ significantly between applicants who had passed both times and those who failed both times. The results attest to the reliability and long-term stability of the test.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AamodtM. G. (1997) Relationship between cognitive ability and police performance: a meta-analysis. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, April 1997.
2.
HirschH. R.NorthrupL. C.SchmidtF. L. (1986) Validity generalization results for law enforcement occupations. Personnel Psychology, 39, 399–120.
3.
MoriartyA. R.FieldM. W. (1994) Police officer selection: a handbook for law enforcement administrators. Springfield, IL: Thomas.
4.
NunnallyJ. C.BernsteinI. H. (1994) Psychometric theory. (3rd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
5.
PliantL. (1995) Selecting officers. The Police Chief, 64(December), 63–72.
6.
RafilsonF.SisonR. (1996) Seven criterion-related validity studies conducted with the National Police Officer Selection Test. Psychological Reports, 78, 163–176.
7.
SpielbergerC. D. (1979) Police selection and evaluation. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
8.
Stanard & Associates, Inc. (1991a) The National Police Officer Selection Test (POST). Chicago, IL.
9.
Stanard & Associates, Inc. (1991b) Report on the development and content validation of the National Police Officer Selection Test (POST). (Unpublished technical report, Chicago, IL)
10.
TermanL. M. (1917) A trial of mental and pedagogical tests in a civil service examination for policemen and firemen. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1, 17–29.
