SSSO SIGMA Survey for Security Officers - Sigma Assessment ...

SSSO
SIGMA Survey for Security Officers
Douglas N. Jackson, Ph.D., Julie M. McCarthy, Ph.D., & Michael C. Ashton, Ph.D. © 1998, 2003, 2009
Screening assessment for the selection of security officers

Overview
• About SIGMA Assessment Systems, Inc.
• About the SSSO Authors
• Quick Facts
• Distinguishing Features
• Sections of the SSSO
• Sample Report
• Norms & Reliability
• Validity
2

About SIGMA Assessment Systems, Inc.
• Established in 1967
– Founded by Douglas N. Jackson, Ph.D.
– Founding member of the Association of Test Publishers.
• International reputation for excellence
– SIGMA’s cognitive ability measure, the MAB-II, was used in the selection of
NASA astronauts, and US Air Force Pilots.
– SIGMA's assessments have been translated into over a dozen languages, and
SIGMA licenses its Intellectual Property to test publishers throughout the world.
– The Career Direction Inventory, an assessment developed by SIGMA, is one of the
most widely used career assessments on the Internet.
– SIGMA successfully implemented a large-scale global rollout of 360 Degree
Feedback to over 35,000 employees of DaimlerChrysler.
• Satisfied clients include: Golf Town, Chapters Indigo Canada, Spinx,
Kellogg’s, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Great Clips, IKEA, EZCorp, Best Buy, Safeway,
Sunswept Resorts, Giant Tiger, Schreiber, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, American
Airlines, Shred-It, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, US Army, British Airways, and many
more.
3

About the SSSO Authors
About Dr. Douglas N. Jackson:
• Former Chair: American Psychological Association’s (APA)
Committee on Psychological Tests and Assessments.
• Former President: APA’s Division of Evaluation, Measurement,
and Statistics.
• Awarded the "Samuel J. Messick Award" for Distinguished
Scientific Contributions.
• One of a very few US Citizens elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
of Canada for contributions to science.
• Published over 200 articles in scientific journals and several dozen
book chapters.
• Over 3 million people have taken assessments authored by Dr. Jackson
4

About the SSSO Authors
(continued)
Dr. Julie M. McCarthy:
• Assistant Professor in the Division of Management at the
University of Toronto.
• Recipient of a number of prestigious academic rewards.
• Extensively published in peer-reviewed journals.
• Research interests include personnel selection, leadership,
personality, performance measurement, and test-taking attitudes.
Dr. Michael C. Ashton:
• Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Brock
University
• Acknowledged world-wide for his personality research.
• Extensively published in peer-reviewed journals.
• Research interests include measurement, personality, integrity
testing, and political attitudes and values.
5

SSSO Quick Facts
• Job-relevant questions to help select
applicants with the cognitive skills
necessary to use sound judgment in
security situations and to write
credible incident reports.
• Assesses Security Problem Solving,
Incident Report Writing and general
cognitive ability.
• Administration time: 30 minutes
• Age: 18 and over
• Level A: No special training
required beyond reading technical
guides.
• Scoring: Fax-in scoring service
available 24/7. Windows and
Internet scoring available by special
request.
6

Distinguishing Features of the SSSO
• Superior development – questions were carefully
selected to be job-relevant.
– More acceptable to candidates and employers.
– More likely to be resistant to legal challenge.
• Strong predictor of job performance
– The SSSO measures general cognitive ability, which has been
found to be one of the best predictors of job performance in
virtually all jobs.
– Research indicates that the SSSO distinguishes between job
candidates who can and cannot prepare satisfactory incident
reports.
7

Sections of the SSSO
• Section 1: Security
Problem Solving
– Descriptions of 5
situations requiring
decisions by a security
officer.
– Every situation is followed
by questions requiring a
correct answer from the
job applicant.
• Section 2: Incident
Report Writing
Aptitude
– Items that allow for
evaluation of typical
sentences contained in
incident reports.
– Two subsections
1. Spelling
2. Grammar and
Punctuation
8

SSSO Sample Report
• Report includes:
– Percentage correct scores
as well as percentile
scores for the individual
sections of the SSSO,
which include:
• Security Problem
Solving
• Incident Report Writing
Aptitude – Spelling and
Grammar and
Punctuation
– Overall Score
– Item responses
9

Norms & Reliability of the SSSO
• Norms:
– Based on a sample of 4729 job candidates applying
for a security officer position.
• Reliability:
– Internal consistency reliabilities (alpha) for the SSSO
range from .73 to .88.
10

Validity of the SSSO
• Validity study with
incumbent security officers in
a work sample environment.
– SSSO scores correlated .65
(corrected) with the quality
of incident reports.
– Individuals showed
increasingly higher
percentages of satisfactory
reports as SSSO scores
increased (see figure).
• Good convergent validity
with validity coefficients for
the three components of
cognitive ability measured by
the SSSO ranging from .43 to
.53.
11

The SSSO is an objective, reliable, and
highly valid screening tool for security
officer selection and placement
12