Contemporary Perspectives
on Assessment Center Validity
(Panel Debate)

Although the construct validity of the assessment center method has been debated for decades, general issues seem still to be without a resolution.  The aim of this session is to bring together leading assessment center scholars to present modern, evidence-based innovations in assessment center design and validation.  Issues will include the debated “re-engineering” of the method, process interventions for increasing assessment center validity, and alternate strategies for evaluating assessment center programs.  Also, recent data from both selection and development centers will be presented.

PDF of Day/Woehr Presentation

PDF of Jones/Klimoski Presentation

PDF of Howard Presentation

Discussant

George Thornton, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Colorado State University

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 .

 

Panelists

Brian Connelly, Ph.D., Eric Day, Ph.D., Alyssa Gibbons, Ph.D.
Maynard Goff, Ph.D., Ann Howard, Ph.D., Robert Jones, Ph.D.
Richard Klimoski, Ph.D., Deniz Ones, Ph.D.
Anuradha Ramesh, Ph.D., Deborah Rupp, Ph.D.,
Carl Thoresen, Ph.D., David Woehr, Ph.D.