Varieties of Validity Evidence: Assessment Centers DO and DO NOT Measure Intended Construct
The purposes of the study reported here were to (a) provide additional tests of C. E. Lance, Newbolt et al.’s (2000) situational specificity (vs. method bias) interpretation of Exercise effects on post-exercise dimension ratings, and (b) provide competitive tests of salient dimension versus general impression models of assessor within-exercise evaluations of candidate performance. Results strongly support the situational specificity hypothesis and the general impression model of assessor cognitive processes in which assessors first form overall evaluations of candidate performance that then drive more specific dimensional ratings. Results are discussed in the context of other recent evidence indicating that the design of assessment centers should move away from traditional dimension-based assessment toward task-based assessment.
Speaker
Charles E. Lance, Ph.D.
The University of Georgia
Speaker
George C. Thornton III, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Colorado State University
George C. Thornton III, Ph.D. Dr. Thornton is Professor of Psychology, Colorado State University. Dr. Thornton earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1966. He is a Diplomat in Industrial/ Organization Psychology awarded by the American Board of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and a Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Organizational.
Dr. Thornton specializes in assessment centers, selection practices, test development and validation, and implications of employment discrimination law for personnel psychology. He has developed, validated, and implemented assessment centers and other situational exercises for selection and development for numerous jobs.
Dr. Thornton is the author of over 55 publications in refereed journals, 6 book chapters, and 3 books, namely Assessment Centers and Managerial Performance (with William Byham) and Assessment Centers in Human Resource Management, Developing Organizational Simulations: A Guide for Practitioners and Students (with Rose Mueller-Hanson). Dr. Thornton has made presentations on the assessment center method to professional conferences such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Congress on Assessment Center Methods, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and to professional audiences throughout the United States, and in Germany, Switzerland, England, Israel, South Africa, Indonesia, and China.