NCJ Number
133918
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1991) Pages: 419-426
Date Published
1991
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) was designed as a way to provide information valuable for identifying prospective law enforcement officers potentially unsuited to the stresses of the work. The 310-item, true-false inventory examines many behavioral patterns and personality characteristics relevant to job performance including substance use, trouble with the law, job difficulties, rigidity, suspiciousness, and interpersonal styles.
Abstract
Performance data on 386 male correction officers were used to validate the IPI; the cross-validation sample consisted of 293 officers. Predictions for poor performance using the IPI were up to 41 percent more accurate than predictions made without the psychological and biographical information. While the findings do indicate the utility of a behaviorally focused screening instrument, the validity results are likely to be underestimates of true validities. Identification may have been truncated because of range restriction, criterion fallibility, or sample idiosyncrasies. 2 tables and 33 references