Premium
Navy Basic Test Battery Validity For Success in Naval Occupations 1
Author(s) -
MERENDA PETER F.
Publication year - 1958
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1958.tb00042.x
Subject(s) - navy , test (biology) , psychology , sample (material) , officer , predictive validity , test validity , statistics , applied psychology , aeronautics , engineering , mathematics , psychometrics , clinical psychology , law , paleontology , chemistry , political science , biology , chromatography
Summary and Conclusions T his study set out to investigate the predictive validity of the Navy Basic Test Battery in determining success of naval enlisted personnel on petty officer advancement examinations. The major hypothesis of the study was that the Battery possesses sufficient validity to warrant its use not only as a predictor of success in Navy service schools but also as a predictor of success in on‐the‐job training and on‐the‐job performance. To test this hypothesis two independent samples were taken, one year apart, from among populations of candidates for advancement in rating to petty officer, third class, in 23 naval occupations. The first sample was used to derive multiple regression equations from which criterion scores could be predicted on the basis of the Navy Basic Test Battery scores. The second sample was used to cross‐validate the regression weights of these equations through an analysis of the zero‐order relationship existing between predicted and actual obtained scores. For the 23 naval occupations studied, the multiple R 's all proved to be both positive and significantly different from zero. Upon cross‐validation, all but one also proved to be both positive and significantly different from zero. The validity coefficients (multiple R 's) of this study compared quite favorably with validity coefficients reported for the prediction of school success on the basis of the Test Battery Scores for naval apprentices in these same naval occupations. The major conclusions of this study are: 1. The Navy Basic Test Battery has reasonably high predictive validity in determining success of naval apprentices in the 23 occupations studied. 2. The use of the Navy Basic Test Battery should be extended to the selection of recruits for specific shipboard training as well as for selection of recruits for formal school training.