I__. - International Military Testing Association

Virtually all life experiences are potentially "job relevant",
provided that they empirically differentiate better and poorer
performers on a consistent basis.
Biodata Item Attributes
Historical versus Hvnothetical. Conceptually, biodata
should pertain solely to historical events, activities which have
taken place, or continue to take place. This attribute would
exclude behavioral intentions or expected behavior in a
hypothetical situation.
External versus Internal. Some have argued that biodata
items should deal with external, though not necessarily publicly
seen, actions. These criteria would exclude items about
thoughts, attitudes, opinions, and unexpressed reactions to
events. An item about what one tvnicallv does in situations
could satisfy the historical/external criterion.
*Numerous biodata researchers have utilized non-external
events in their biodata measures, and conceptually, non-external
aspects of events are also capable of having significant impact
on subsequent behavior. Nevertheless, the external event
criterion may be crucial if claiming greater validity for biodata
compared to temperament scales. Temperament scales require
assessments of personal tendencies, often in areas in which
people not only portray themselves favorably (t'impression
management"), but actually see themselves in an unrealistically
favorable light ("self-deception") (Paulhus, 1984). For example,
most employees overrate their work performance compared to that
of peers. Nondepressed persons consistently overrate their
performance, so much that realistic self-evaluation may be
indicative of depression (Mischel, 1979). Similarly, negative
and positive affect orientations have been shown to be correlated
with response patterns on temperament and related scales. Thus,
the *'normallt tendency to overrate successes and underestimate
failings can lead to self-deception and could possibly inflate
responses to some temperament scales. By contrast, biodata
scales dealing with external events purport to force the
respondent to either answer honestly or consciously distort
answers, with the assumption that fewer people will choose the
latter.
Obiective and First-hand versus Subiective. Some who
prefer that biodata be descriptions of external events also feel
that biodata should be obiective recollections, requiring only
the faculty of recall. Subjective interpretation of events, such
as ,assessing if one was 'Idisappointed"," angry", or "depressedl'
in a given situation, would not fit this criterion. Evaluation
of one's qualities or performance relative to that of others
would also be considered subjective. A corollary would be that
biodata items ask only for the first-hand knowledge of the
respondent. Estimation of how others (peers, parents, teachers)
would evaluate one's performance or temperament involves an
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