The Psychometric Evaluation of a Personality Selection Tool
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Seattle aP cific nivU ersity Digital Commons @ SPU Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations Psychology, Family, and Community, School of Spring January 18th, 2017 The syP chometric Evaluation of a Personality Selection Tool James R. Longabaugh Seattle Pacific nU iversity Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/iop_etd Part of the Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Longabaugh, James R., "The sP ychometric Evaluation of a Personality Selection Tool" (2017). Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations. 10. https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/iop_etd/10 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology, Family, and Community, School of at Digital Commons @ SPU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ SPU. The Psychometric Evaluation of a Personality Selection Tool James Longabaugh A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial-Organizational Psychology Seattle Pacific University January, 2017 THE PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF A PERSONALITY INSTRUMENT i Acknowledgments The question of whether it is the journey or the destination that is more important has never been so clear; it is the journey. There have been so many people who have helped and supported me along the way, and I only hope that I can acknowledge as many of them as possible. It is with great gratitude that I extend thanks to each and every one who has helped me attain this high honor, but more so for their contributions of inspiration and motivation along the way. First and foremost, my advisor, my mentor, and my dissertation chair, Dr. Dana Kendall. I express my appreciation for her guidance, knowledge, and above all her mentorship. She has walked alongside me for the last six years, bestowing her knowledge, providing undue support and inspiration that I shall forever be grateful. She sets the gold standard for what it means to be a mentor. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Jerry Kehoe and Dr. Lynette Bikos. Jerry truly is one of our field’s foremost thought leaders and experts. He has been a solid foundation for which I have developed my applied and consulting acumen in relation to I-O psychology, as well as teaching me to keep fishing for knowledge. I hope he understands how invaluable the projects that we had worked on together have and will be for my success. Dr. Bikos has been instrumental in my penchant for data and statistics. Her unwavering guidance and support, from statistics courses to this dissertation, has been instrumental throughout this journey. I would also like to thank my professors, Dr. Rob McKenna, Dr. Paul Yost, and Dr. Joey Collins. I express my gratitude for your genuine support, motivation, inspiration, and most of all THE PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF A PERSONALITY SELECTION TOOL ii pushing me towards my edge and challenging my thoughts. I have gained valuable lessons from each, and I am honored to be part of the Seattle Pacific University I-O Psychology program. In respect to the SPU I-O program, I have so many colleagues who I also consider to be close friends that have been my support and guiding light along this journey. This has definitely been a journey that one cannot go alone. While so many I could list, I am especially grateful for Dr.’s Bobby Bullock, Katie Kirkpatrick-Husk, Joshua Weaver, Emily Pelosi, Hilary Roche, Daniel Hallak, John Terrill, and soon-to-be Dr.’s Roble Kirce, Kira Wenzel, Serena Hsia, Nathan Iverson, Jared Daniel, and J’Aimee Mission. Thank you! From my time at IBM Kenexa, there are two people that I have especially looked to for guidance and who have helped me get across the finish line, Dr. Kevin Impelman and Dr. Jeff Labrador. You both helped me think through important pieces of this dissertation that added great value, and I continue to learn from you each and every day. I would also like to thank my family and close friends who have shown their support, provided motivation, and most of all for their understanding. To my mother, for her undying love, my father for teaching me to give it everything you got to achieve your goals, Cameron for his encouragement, and also the grace from my grandparents and extended family. To my friends, for their understanding when I could not come out to play, and their support to keep moving forward. Last but certainly not least, my wife Melinda, for her praise, for giving me the space and time to study, providing assurance that all will be right, and most of all her unconditional love. To her, I hope that I was present throughout this journey. THE PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF A PERSONALITY SELECTION TOOL iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................................... i List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. vii List of Appendices ..................................................................................................................................... viii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ ix CHAPTER I .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction and Literature Review .............................................................................................................. 1 Extending Validation Evidence of the Personality Instrument ................................................................. 3 Purpose of this Study ................................................................................................................................ 3 History of Personality Assessment ........................................................................................................... 5 The lexical approach to capturing personality. ................................................................................... 5 Using factor analysis to investigate the dimensionality of personality. ................................................ 6 History and Development of the Five Factor Model ................................................................................ 8 FFM traits. ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Empirical Support for the Predictive Value of Personality for Work-Related Outcomes ...................... 12 Challenges to Assessing Personality for Selection Purposes .................................................................. 14 Narrow versus broad personality traits. .................................................................................................. 16 Personality Stability ................................................................................................................................ 18 Personality traits as malleable. ............................................................................................................ 19 Personality traits as stable. ................................................................................................................ 20 Considering Situation Factors: The Importance of Item Context-Specificity ......................................... 21 Priming participants to respond with a specific context in mind. ..................................................... 23 Empirical support for the use of contextualized assessment items. .................................................... 26 Advantage of the Personality Instrument: Context-specific items. ..................................................... 29 Research Hypotheses .............................................................................................................................. 29 Hypothesis 1a: Factoral validity of the Personality Assessment. ...................................................... 30 Figure 1. Proposed Empirical Factor Model of the Personality Instrument as Derived from a Previous EFA. ............................................................................................................................................................ 31 Hypothesis 2: Stability of the Personality Assessment. .................................................................... 32 Figure 2. Hypothesized Relationship between Personality Instrument Score at Time 1 and Time 2. ........ 32 Hypothesis 3: Item functioning of the narrow facets. ....................................................................... 33 CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................................................... 34 Method ........................................................................................................................................................ 34 THE PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF A PERSONALITY SELECTION TOOL iv Participant characteristics ......................................................................................................................