Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and California Psychological Inventory as predictors of performance for a municipal and a state police agency.

Abstract

This study examined the utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and California Psychological Inventory (CPI) scale scores in predicting three levels of performance, pass/fail for academy training, grade point average (GPA) earned during academy training, and field performance rating (FPR) after completion of academy training, for two groups of police recruits. The first group consisted of 85 Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) recruits, and the second group consisted of 99 Oklahoma City Police Department (OCPD) recruits. There were significant correlations between several scales on the MMPI and both the pass/fail and GPA criterion for both agencies. No significant correlations with FPR were found for either agency. Several scales on the CPI were significantly correlated with pass/fail and GPA for both agencies. Several scales on the CPI could be used to predict FPR for OCPD, but not for OHP. When the two tests were combined, several scales were significantly correlated with all three levels of performance for both agencies.