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Assessment Centers: 
Not as (In)valid as you Think!

Ongoing debates about the validity of Assessment Centers have led to very different conclusions about the validity or lack of validity of the Assessment Center Method.  One of the recurring problems in this debate is that different people often mean very different things when they say "validity".  This talk will examine how changing perspectives about what validity means and how it should be studied have muddied the debate on Assessment Center Validity, and will suggest some methods for restoring some common ground in talking about the validity of Assessment Centers.

PDF of Murphy Presentation

PDF of Thornton Response

Kevin Murphy is a Professor of Psychology and Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University . He earned his PhD from Penn State in 1979, has served on the faculties of Rice University , New York University, and Colorado State University , and has had visiting appointments at the University of California , Berkeley and the University of Limerick .  He has also been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Stockholm , and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Society.  He is the recipient of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s 2004 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.

He served as President of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (1997-98), and as Associate Editor, then Editor of Journal of Applied Psychology (1991-2002), as well as a member of the editorial boards of Human Performance, Personnel Psychology. Human Resource Management Review, International Journal of Management Reviews, Journal of Industrial Psychology and International Journal of Selection and Assessment. He served as a Member and Chair of the Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Military Personnel Testing, and has also served on four National Academy of Sciences committees, most recently the Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph.  He has worked extensively with the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center and with the United States Marine Corps, including two visiting appointments at NPRDC, and has served as a consultant to private and public-sector organizations in the areas of personnel selection and the assessment of job performance.

He is the author of over one hundred and thirty articles and book chapters, and author or editor of ten books, in areas ranging from psychometrics and statistical analysis to individual differences, performance assessment, gender, and honesty in the workplace. Dr. Murphy’s main areas of research include personnel selection and placement, performance appraisal, and psychological measurement.  His current work focuses on methods of validating inferences from psychological tests and assessments.

 

Dr. Thornton is Professor of Psychology, Colorado State University . Dr. Thornton earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1966. He is a Diplomate 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 .