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- Inzunza, Miguel, 1970-
(författare)
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Suitability in law enforcement : Assessing multifaceted selection criteria
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- When selecting applicants for professions with job descriptions involving complex human interaction, identifying suitable candidates is essential. This strongly applies in police selection, because police officers must act appropriately at all times, deal with difficult and sometimes dangerous work situations, and come into contact with people who are in highly emotional states, such as anxiety, fear, excitement, and shock. However, suitability is a broad and vague concept that cannot be even defined without understanding the value of various personal skills and qualities for specific duties, ways that such skills are manifested during life as an officer (potentially both on- and off-duty), and appropriate ways to assess them.The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the personal skills and qualities that are relevant to suitability for the police profession with a special focus on the concept of empathy, and to investigate how it can be conceptualized and measured in the context of selection. Two of the four studies focused on different perspectives regarding the personal skills and qualities of a good police officer, while the other two focused on theoretical aspects and practical measurement of empathy.Mixed methods were used, in acknowledgement of the value of using different forms of data collection, material, and analytical methods to achieve valid information.The results and findings support several of the personal skills and qualities that have been identified in previous research and also can be found as criteria in police selection. Empathy should be considered in the selection process, but it is also important to ensure that there is an alignment between the definition of the concept and practical outcomes in police work. The findings indicate that empathy could be conceptualized in a relevant way using a social cognitive neuroscience (SCN) approach. In particular, a modified, Swedish 4-factor version of the Empathy Assessment Index (based on recent theoretical advances in SCN) appears to have considerable potential for further development.Future studies will focus on areas identified as requiring further research, such as the development of this instrument by adding complementary measures focusing on manifestations of empathy and other relevant qualities in actual work-related situations. Other aspects that require further attention include the definition, assessment, and impact of social desirability in selection contexts.
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| 2. |
- Strömbäck Hjärne, Marcus, 1979-
(författare)
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A fair score? : group independent validity arguments for college admission tests
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to investigate fair use of test scores for admission to higher education. In this thesis, fairness is narrowed down to an instrumental definition relating to a fair interpretation of test scores. The focus is on the use of the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT) for admission decisions. The main questions targeted are whether the scores generated from an adaptation with extended time for test takers with dyslexia are fair and whether the SweSAT-scores may disadvantage students with an immigrant background.The thesis is based on validity theory and an established argument-based validity concept is used to link the results to crucial aspects of fairness. This thesis adds explicit fairness-related issues in some detail to this already established framework used for validity research related to the SweSAT. This approach involves some propositions about fairness, each of which can be investigated empirically which, to some extent, has been conducted in separate studies in this thesis.The individual studies contain a variety of results. In the first study, sub-scores of the SweSAT was found to have differential values for certain groups of test takers. This could cause unfairness if the sub-scores are used for admission decisions, but it also indicates that the internal structure of the test is inconsistent across groups. In the second article, the SweSAT was found to be speeded, meaning that the time limit is affecting the test score, and that test takers with dyslexia generally benefit from being given extra time to complete the test. It could not be ruled out that the extra time causes a beneficial experience of lower speededness compared to the rest of the test population, who take the test with no extra time. In the third article, we discover, to our surprise, that immigrant groups generally perform worse than expected in higher education when the expectations are based on their SweSAT and upper secondary school grades. In other words, the instruments used does not create an unintentional obstacle for immigrants in general since the ability of these groups to complete higher education is overestimated when grades and SweSAT-Scores are used for selection. However, in the final article, test items that may cause an unfair disadvantage for immigrant students was identified.In summary, the results contribute to expanding and, to some extent, strengthening the validity of using the SweSAT for admission. However, certain fairness issues have been noted.
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| 3. |
- Vestergren, Peter, 1974-
(författare)
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On the subjective–objective distinction for measures of memory and cognition : Theoretical and methodological issues in questionnaire development and validation
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis was to develop a questionnaire for cognitive functioning, which could possibly be used as a screening instrument for early signs of dementia in the future. The introduction discusses the often made distinction between subjective and objective measures. A background to the four articles is provided, focussing on findings of weak relationships between self-report- and laboratory measures of memory/cognition. Studies I and II provided results and conclusions that guided instrument development and validation in Studies III and IV. All studies were based on data from participants in the Betula Prospective Cohort Study. Study I investigated predictors of scores on an established self-report instrument for memory failures (PRMQ). Candidate predictors were memory performance on laboratory tests, age, depressive symptoms, and personality traits. There was no relation to age, and test performance did not predict self-reported memory, but depressive symptoms and personality did. Given the finding of a lack of a relation to age, and a bulk of research articles claiming that memory complaints are common in the elderly or increase with age, Study II used a global rating of problems with memory, and reports of perceived causes. In contrast to Study I, problems ratings were related to age, such that increasing age meant higher severity of problems. Furthermore, perceived causes of memory problems differed across age. The elderly reported aging while the young reported stress and multitasking as primary causes. With these results as a background, the purpose of Study III was to develop a new instrument (the Cognitive Dysfunction Questionnaire - CDQ) with the explicit aim that scores should be related to laboratory test performance. A global construct of cognitive functioning with an emphasis on memory systems was adopted, and an item pool was generated. Based on exploratory principal components analysis and correlations with criterion measures (laboratory test performance), twenty items in six domains were selected. Preliminary psychometric evidence showed that the CDQ was reliable, and related to age and objective measures, but not to depressive symptoms. In Study IV, twenty additional items were constructed, and the CDQ was responded to by participants in independent samples. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure derived from Study III, and refinement was undertaken by collapse of two domains and exclusion of items. The final factor structure was cross-validated. Competing models and measurement invariance across age and sex was tested. Psychometric properties were investigated for the final 20-item version.
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