$\"aamodt\"$ <\/a>

Book review of \u201cResearch in Law Enforcement Selection\u201d by Michael G. Aamodt.<\/p><\/div>\n

The first two chapters are about what a meta-analysis is and how it is done in this study.\u00a0 Okay I have to admit, I am a closet Discovery\/History Channel watcher and fought off those un-cool nerd tendencies throughout high school and college.\u00a0 And I actually like research and stats, but please do not tell the other kids.\u00a0 Dr. Aamodt\u2019s two chapters on the meta-analysis are progressive and in simple enough terms that even a non-nerd can understand his concepts, but you have to have a little of that nerd thing to find it fascinating like I did.\u00a0 The meta-analysis statistically combines all well-done published studies, regardless of statistics and methods, and weighs and balances them for an overall statistical analysis of effect.\u00a0 It seems like a tremendous amount of work, but what a great idea to look at data this way rather than argue one study over another.\u00a0 In the following chapters he looks at variables like cognitive ability, educational background, previous military experience, background problems, individual sub-test scores on personality tests, vocational interest inventories and a host of other constructs measured in pre-employment evaluations to see if they can predict job performance, academy performance and likelihood of problems on the job.\u00a0 Without giving you any of the findings (buy the book for that), I found myself constantly saying, now that is interesting (ex., criminal justice majors don\u2019t do better as cops or in the academy, or measure \u201cx\u201d really has tremendous adverse impact, or this subtest doesn\u2019t discriminate at all, etc).\u00a0 Dr. Aamodt has managed somehow in this book to answer a ton of questions, raise a number of issues and keep you saying, \u201cWow, I never would have thought that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the final chapter, Dr. Aamodt lists the things we know, the things we don\u2019t know, and what we need to find out about pre-employment evaluations.\u00a0 For example, he tells you the one subtest that is the single best predictor of performance on the job (not what I expected).\u00a0 He tells you the correlations between positive citations and civilian complaints.\u00a0 He tells you the best predictors of academy performance, and talks about the end of a honeymoon period where some predictors start to really come through.\u00a0 Every police psychologist, every police chief, everyone working in employment law, and every graduate student studying anything about industrial organizational psychology should read this chapter.\u00a0 It is worth 100 times the cost of the book and it sets a way of thinking that should be a structure for all employment testing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I testify on a lot on police cases and work with lawyers on how to cross examine psychologists.\u00a0 I have already integrated some of Dr. Aamodt\u2019s analysis into my work.\u00a0 It is just that kind of book \u2013 filled with facts that should guide the practice of a profession.\u00a0 He states in the preface he wanted it to be a resource book for the profession.\u00a0 He has succeeded in a big way.\u00a0 If you are in any way responsible for pre-employment assessment in law enforcement, you\u2019d better read what he says in this simple paperback book.\u00a0 You definitely don\u2019t want to face some lawyer who has read it, or has been prepared by a psychologist who has read it.\u00a0 This book is a resource book that should be required reading in the profession.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe I should try that Campari again.\u00a0 \u2014- Nah!!<\/span><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this book review, sign up to receive updates for more posts on the latest in police psychology and stress management.<\/p>\n

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

For books by Dr. Gary S. Aumiller got to www.myherodad.com or www.myheromom.com<\/span><\/p>\n

Join me on Facebook or Linkedin (see sidebar)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t do Meta Analysis and don\u2019t do pre-employment evaluations.\u00a0 Most of my life I have had little interest in either.\u00a0 The mixing of the two for me should be somewhat like eating overdone beef liver cooked in castor oil and chasing it down with Campari (the Italian liquor that looks and tastes like transmission […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168876],"tags":[17168796,17168797],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-book-review","tag-police-psychology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=36","url_meta":{"origin":57,"position":0},"title":"Book Review: Personality Assessment in Police Psychology","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to admit, I had no intention of reading this book in one sitting, in fact, I was only really going to read about half of the essays in this collection of essays.\u00a0 I have to admit I was invited to write a chapter in this book but really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168876"},"img":{"alt_text":"Weiss","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/weiss-212x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4245,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=4245","url_meta":{"origin":57,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | Divorce in Cops and Corrections","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"October 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Divorce in Cops and Corrections by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP I just spent the past week at the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology meeting.\u00a0 I had been the first executive director of the group and was the president the year before that, so I (with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Public Information Bureau"","block_context":{"text":"Public Information Bureau","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168888"},"img":{"alt_text":"divorce","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/divorce-164x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4105,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=4105","url_meta":{"origin":57,"position":2},"title":"Police Psychology | Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"September 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP \u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to see the polls this week.\u00a0 Two weeks ago Trump was behind by 10 points, earlier last week by 5 points, the end of last week by 2 points and yesterday he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Public Information Bureau"","block_context":{"text":"Public Information Bureau","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168888"},"img":{"alt_text":"line chart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/line-chart-300x186.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=682","url_meta":{"origin":57,"position":3},"title":"Police Psychology | Fit To Be A Cop? How Much Testing is Enough?","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"September 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"POLICE PSYCHOLOGY | FIT TO BE A COP?\u00a0 HOW MUCH PSYCH TESTING IS ENOUGH? Laurence Miller, PhD BALTIMORE (Associated Press) \u2014 \"A psychological firm paid to evaluate troubled Baltimore police, including a lieutenant charged in the killing of Freddie Gray, is under investigation by the city and has been put\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Tests","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168877"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=50","url_meta":{"origin":57,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: A Handbook for Psychological Fitness-For-Duty Evaluations in Law Enforcement","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"January 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Cary Rostow asked me to review his book and I thought \u201cno problem.\u201d\u00a0 It was a supposedly a Handbook on Fitness for Duty Examinations.\u00a0 So I figured it would be a short, little boring thing with a lot of statistics, but I will slog through it and write something inane\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168876"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rostow","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/rostow-216x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6643,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=6643","url_meta":{"origin":57,"position":5},"title":"Police Psychology: How to Pass Your Pre-Employment Psych Screening","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"October 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"How to Pass Your Pre-Employment Psych Screening (without driving yourself nuts) Laurence Miller, PhD \u00a0Many prospective LEOs ask me if there\u2019s any special \u201cadvice\u201d I can offer about how to pass their agency\u2019s pre-employment psychological evaluation.\u00a0 So I\u2019m going to offer some straightforward recommendations for giving the most positive and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tests"","block_context":{"text":"Tests","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168877"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p60sbO-V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}