Psychology (Essay Sample)

Job Screening of Law Enforcement Applicants Name Institution Job screening of law enforcement applicants The screening out model in law enforcement recruitment aims to eliminate from further evaluation candidates who exhibit behaviour problems such as homosexuality, stress intolerance, homelessness, prejudice towards ethnic minorities, poor interpersonal relationships, disorders in thought process, inability to control impulsive behaviour, and poor judgement. Screening out is more utilized during law enforcement recruitment than the screening-in model. Screening-in procedures aim at establishing the specific attributes that make certain applicants more effective than others (Simmers, Bowers, & Ruiz, 2003). As such, this model is used for rank-ordering applicants. As a result, the recruitment panel can identify the top performers from a pool of applicants who are already qualified. Screening-in process appreciates that all candidates do possess various transferable skills that can benefit the team (Dantzker, 2011). Psychological screening has become a central procedure in the recruitment of law enforcement officers and its primary objective is to identify and eliminate candidates who exhibit personality disorders as they are unsuitable to serve in the force (Bartol & Bartol, 2018). The three most utilized tests are the MMPI, MMPI-2, and the IPI. MMPI is an acronym shortening Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and its main purpose is to evaluate the personality traits of the candidates during the law enforcement recruitment process. MMPI helps to identify candidates who may have mental health complications. Common questions asked in this test relate to social introversion, paranoia, and depression. MMPI-2 is a true/false self-reporting test whose main aim is to assess the psychological state of the candidates. This tool compromises a total of none validity scales that can evaluate behaviours such as lying, faking bad, defensiveness, and faking good (Simmers, Bowers, & Ruiz, 2003). Lastly, IPI stands for Inwald Personality Inventory and it assesses whether or not a candidate is fit for law enforcement and public safety jobs. According to Dantzker (2011), the IPI is better than the other two tests as its scores exhibit higher relationships between instrument results and subsequent police performance (Dantzker, 2011). To carry out a successful pre-employment screening of candidates following ADA guidelines, the interviewer should not ask questions touching on obvious disabilities as they are discriminatory. Also, the interview panel should not ask general questions related to disability. It is importan...