APPLICANT TESTING - Coursework Example

They may be tested for their cognitive ability to understand arresting procedures and application of those procedures. Potential police officers even undergo personality testing to identify the degree of fitness of the applicant to serve on the police force. One of the best ways to test police officers for the police department is the cognitive ability test. This testing method is used to identify the applicant’s ability to understand procedures and rules and their application in the field work.

These tests are inexpensive because these tests can be conducted through computer based software that offers different questions based on multiple choices and these tests can be conducted online. The problem with these tests is that the applicant may perceive that the tests are not directly testing skills required to perform the job. These tests can result in legal issues because these tests may result in unintended discriminatory practices. For example: these tests have been found to resulted in unintended discriminatory practices against certain minority and protected groups such as the African Americans.

Sims states that African Americans have been found to score sixteen percent less than White Americans on these tests (Sims, 2007). In order to avoid legal action and decrease the chances of being help responsible for unintended discriminatory practices, organizations can make these tests more jobs specific in order to be able to prove that these tests were conducted without the intention of discriminating against the protected groups. Personality trait tests used for applicant testing is another significant test that is being used in order to perform tests that help in testing the psychological aspect of applicants.

These tests are mainly administered in order to identify the psychological disorders or issues that applicants might be facing and due to these disorders applicants are rejected. The main