I__. - International Military Testing Association

The base rate for applicants who received
unsuitability discharges was 13.5%. Table 2 shows
that the greatest reduction in this rate occurs with the
use of the Type of Discharge key plus the
supplementary predictors, i.e. AFQT category and age
at service entry. At a cutoff score closest to the
19%/81% split, the percentage of unsuitability
discharges would have been reduced to 10.4%, slightly
more than three percentage points below the base rate.
This translates into 99 unreliable individuals who would
have been screened out.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The major caveat in deriving operational
conclusions from the findings of this study was the
relatively small sample size. Other problems which are
discussed in Zimmerman, et. al. (in press) are:
(a) criterion issues such as the relevance of the criteria
to personnel security decisions and the existence of
false negatives (e.g., individuals classified as issue
cases who are granted their securg clearances) and
false positives (e.g., individuals who are never
classified as an issue case yet they are turned down
for a security clearance) and (b) impact of low base
rates in both the predictors and criteria.
Despite these caveats, further research on the
169-R, using a large data sample, seems to be
warranted for two reasons. First, the findings of this
report clearly indicate the utility or benefit of using
empirical scoring keys to supplement existing
prescreening procedures based on the 169-R.
Second, for many predictor variables from the 169-R,
cell sizes were too small to compute a valid measure
of association. If all available data for an entire year
were analyzed, more definitive results could be
obtained.
In addition to analyzing a larger data sample, a
potentially fruitful avenue is the revision of the 169-R to
increase its validity.
515
Note: Since the completion of this study, research has
been initiated on a much larger sample of 169-R forms
completed by applicants in 1986. In addition, a
revision of the 169-R has been developed jointly by the
Defense Personnel Security Research and Education
Center and the U. S. Total Army Personnel Command,
and was operationally implemented on 1 October 1990.
References
Crawford, K. S. & Trent, T. (1987). Personnel security
prescreenino: An application of the Armed
Services Applicant Profile fASAP) (PERS-TR-87-
003). Monterey, CA: Defense Personnel Security
Research and Education Center.
Crawford, K S., & Wiskoff, M. F. (1988). Screening
enlisted accessions for sensitive military iobs
(PERS-TR-89-001). Monterey, CA: Defense
Personnel Security Research and Education Center.
Guion, R. M. (1965) Personnel testing. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Wiskoff, M. F. & Dunipace, N. E. (1988). Moral waivers
and suitabilitv for hiah securitv militarv lobs (PERS-
TR-88-011). Monterey, CA: Defense Personnel
Security Research and Education Center.
Zimmerman, R. A., Fitz, C. C., Wiskoff, M. F., & Parker,
J. P. (in press). Preliminarv analvsis of the U. S.
Armv Security Screening Questionnaire (PERS-TN-
90-008). Monterey, CA: Defense Personnel
Security Research and Education Center.