The United States Supreme Court has decided several cases clarifying the place of employment testing in the context of discrimination law.
The tests are open ended, time bound, business related questions which applicants need to submit their responses for in order to prove their abilities.
Researchers have tested the commonly-used Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism).
However, other factors of personality can correlate with non-traditional aspects of job performance, such as leadership and effectiveness in a team environment.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a highly validated psychopathology test that is generally used in a clinical psychology setting and may reveal potential mental health disorders.
Notable situations in which the MMPI may be used are in final selection for police officers, fire fighters, and other security and emergency personnel, especially when the employees are required to carry weapons.
Job-knowledge tests are commonly used in fields such as computer programming, law, financial management, and electrical or mechanical maintenance.
Situational judgment tests are commonly used as employee-selection and employee-screening tools and have been developed to predict employment success.
[18] Situational judgment tests measure the suitability of job applicants by assessing attributes such as problem solving, service orientation, and striving for achievement.
Psychology research typically sets a relatively low threshold when deciding if a correlation is strong or weak.