published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The paper-and-pencil integrity test, which is used in industry as an employee selection device, has been largely developed outside the mainstream of psychological testing. The result has been that some testing programs have inadequately standardized testing conditions and/or other safeguards to ensure valid test results. Studies have shown that response distortion, or faking, is a problem with all types of tests, integrity tests being no exception. A correlation between the construct underlying integrity testing, such as the personality trait of conscientiousness, has yet to be investigated. The primary purpose of the present study was to determine how response distortion on integrity tests is affected by the instructions given by test administrators. Also, the connection between integrity tests and conscientiousness is examined. Finally, comparisons were made between currently published integrity tests/scales. Two hundred and forty-nine college students participated in this study by completing the following three integrity tests and two personality test scales: The London House Personnel Selection Inventory (London House Press, Inc., 1980); The Tescor Survey (Bullard, 1992); The Reid Report (Reid, 1967); The Value Orthodoxy Scale from The Jackson Personality Inventory (Jackson, 1976), and the Work Orientation Scale from the California Personality Inventory (Gough, 1985). The three integrity tests offer a variety of validation studies in support of their scales. Also, all three test publishers participated in a pre-publication review of the 1991 APA Task Force Report on integrity testing (Goldberg, Grenier, Guion, Sechrest, & Wing). Results show that responses were affected by instructions given by the administrator. For example, the analysis shows that in a job application situation, an applicant who believes a prospective employer is using an integrity test to identify undesirable applicants will tend to distort his/her responses on a theft scale to appear more favorable. Also for the theft scales, instructions to deliberately give false responses in a socially desirable way did not differ from a standard job applicant instruction set. Instructions emphasizing the ability of the tests to identify high integrity employees also did not differ from the standard instruction set's results. Results also show that conscientiousness is correlated with integrity test scales. Finally, the integrity tests and personality scales studied here are significantly correlated. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Integrity tests are used as a pre-employment screening technique by companies and organizations, and the fakability of such tests remain a concern. The present study used two separate designs to analyze the fakability of the Personnel Reaction Blank (PRB), a covert integrity test, and the personality constructs predictive of honest and fake scores. This study shows that the PRB can be successfully faked. The personality constructs conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism are significantly correlated with honest integrity test scores while conscientiousness and neuroticism are predictors of faking behavior. Finally, the type of design used to examine the fakability of the PRB affects the magnitude of faking found. I conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical uses of the results and directions for future research. / Department of Psychological Science

Recent interest in "greener" geothermal heating and cooling systems as well as developments in the quality assurance of cast-in-place concrete foundations has heightened the need for properly assessing thermal properties of soils. Therein, the ability of a soil to diffuse or absorb heat is dependent on the surrounding conditions (e.g. mineralogy, saturation, density, and insitu temperature). Prior to this work, the primary thermal properties (conductivity and heat capacity) had no correlation to commonly used soil exploration methods and therefore formed the focus of this thesis. Algorithms were developed in a spreadsheet platform that correlated input boring log information to thermal properties using known relationships between density, saturation, and thermal properties as well as more commonly used strength parameters from boring logs. Limited lab tests were conducted to become better acquainted with ASTM standards with the goal of proposing equipment for future development. Finally, sample thermal integrity profiles from cast-in-place foundations were used to demonstrate the usefulness of the developed algorithms. These examples highlighted both the strengths and weaknesses of present boring log data quality leaving room for and/or necessitating engineering judgment.

Thesis (MA (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The impact of employee theft in organisations is far reaching and includes financial as well as non-financial costs. Nowhere is the reduction of theft more important than in financial institutions. Research has shown that the second best predictor of counterproductive behaviour such as employee theft was integrity. Integrity is a concept that has a long and contentious history. Being a difficult construct to define, it has been subject to much debate. From a business standpoint, there is now considerable interest in linking integrity to organisations as well as individual persons. Research has further shown that various personality dimensions are predictive of counterproductive behaviours such as theft. As such personality measures have been used increasingly as integrity tests to detect such behaviour. The purpose of this study is to examine the ability of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire 32 version i (OPQ 32i) to predict employee theft in a financial institution. Research has shown that individuals with lower levels of integrity are more likely to indulge in counterproductive behaviour which may be manifested in employee theft. Specific dimensions of the OPQ under study are conscientiousness, emotional control, achievement orientation, rule following and conventionality. In line with current research it was expected that these five personality dimensions would differentiate those individuals who commit theft in a financial institution from those who do not. A review of current literature is undertaken, focusing on the concept of integrity, the history and background of integrity testing, the classification of integrity tests, as well as the use of personality dimensions in assessing integrity. The review further includes a discussion of criticisms and controversies that surround the application of Integrity tests, recommendations for the application of integrity testing, employee theft as a criterion, and the impact of employee theft on organisations. This is followed by a discussion of theft as being a result of individual personality traits versus being a result of situational factors. Recommendations are also made to organisations on how to limit employee theft. Finally, the OPQ32i (Occupational Personality Questionnaire 32 Version i), as the choice of measurement tool is discussed, as are the psychometric properties and previous research conducted on the tool. The current study was an empirical one with a quantitative, concurrent validity approach. A sample of 116 individuals from a financial institution was divided into two mutually exclusive groups based on detected theft. 22 Employees had been dismissed due to theft (Group 2) and 94 were still employed (Group 1). General statistics were completed followed by a two-tailed independent-samples t-test and a measurement of effect sizes with a view to conduct a Canonical Discriminant Analysis. The results of the study suggest that the conscientiousness, emotional control, achievement orientation, rule following and conventionality dimensions of the OPQ32i were not able to differentiate those individuals who committed theft in the financial institution under study from those who did not commit theft. Thus, in the financial institution under study, the research conducted does not provide conclusive evidence for the OPQ32i as a good predictor of employee theft. This conclusion needs to be interpreted with care given the limitations of the research. The results are discussed with specific reference to response style of applicants, integrity as a construct, the impact of situational factors on employee theft and difficulty of theft as a criterion. Finally limitations and recommendations for future study are discussed.

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Rate-dependent effects introduced during rapid and/or dynamic events have typically been oversimplified to compensate for deficiencies in present analyses. As load test results are generally considered as the basis of performance from which foundations can be designed, it is imperative that the analyzed load test data be as accurate as possible. In an attempt to progress the state of load test data regression, this dissertation addresses two common assumptions made during the regression process: (1) the statnamic damping coefficient is constant throughout the entire load test and (2) the concrete stress-strain relationship is linear-elastic. Also presented is a case study where the inherent features of a rapid load test proved useful in identifying the occurrence and proximity of a structural failure within a drilled shaft.