Course Details

Course TitleSPCP 2023 - Session 7: Pre-Employment Screening - Using Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning to Detect the Dark Personality Traits in Protective Services Candidates
Date 9/21/2023
ProviderSociety for Police and Criminal Psychology Annual Conference
Phone 
Emailbrewstja@jmu.edu
Website https://www.policepsychology.org/conference
LocationArlington, TX
Credit Hours0.25
Instructor(s)Shaun Wehle, Psy.D.; Scott Stubenrauch, Psy.D.; Kristin Delgado, Ph.D.
Method of InstructionWorkshop/Seminar
Approving AgencyAPA
Course Syllabus

Course Description

This presentation will cover the role of personality testing in police and public safety selection with a specific focus on how hiring candidates with high levels of the Dark Triad (DT) traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) may have detrimental effects. Past research and our own data indicate that even subclinical elevations on DT are associated with maladaptive behaviors and can have significant negative impact on the work environment and on people around them. They are associated with poor job performance, more counterproductive work behaviors, poor work attitudes, and toxic behaviors. We propose that measuring these traits during the selection process (either pre or post offer) would be ideal: however, such measures are susceptible to response distortion. Further, given the deceitful and manipulative nature of DT individuals, a covert approach may be more effective. We propose that normal personality can be used to understand DT and related tendencies. Therefore, we will demonstrate how we intend to update the PEPQ - PSR+ to leverage the “normal” personality assessment (16PF) to capture socially undesirable traits in self-report assessments. Preliminarily, we have applied machine learning techniques to 16PF data to extract response profiles that are predictive of DT scores using a dataset of over 2,000 individuals. Our findings revealed that DT can be covertly measured from the 16PF. This study highlights the utility of machine learning in overcoming response distortion concerns when assessing undesirable traits.

Course Objectives