Date of Award
Fall 11-17-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (PhD)
Department
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
First Advisor/Committee Member
Helen Chung
Second Advisor/Committee Member
Jorge Lumbreras
Third Advisor/Committee Member
Annie Kato
Keywords
situational judgment test, general domain knowledge, personality, implicit trait policies, specific job knowledge
Abstract
The Situational Judgment Test (SJT) is a popular selection tool used by employers to
make hiring decisions due to their strong predictive validity. SJTs present job candidates with
hypothetical scenarios, asking them to choose the responses that best fit those situations. SJTs
have been used to measure a range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, but what they measure and
why they predict performance remains unclear. Lievens and Motowidlo (2016) called for a
reframing of the SJT as a measure of general domain knowledge. According to their theory, SJTs
measure procedural knowledge, which is composed of general domain knowledge—
operationalized as implicit trait policies (ITPs)—and specific job knowledge. ITPs are beliefs
about the effectiveness of expressing trait-related behaviors in various situations that
theoretically mediate the relationship between personality and SJT performance.
This study utilized archival data from two samples of firefighters (novice and incumbent)
to test the hypothesized relationships within Lievens and Motowidlo’s (2016) model, which
included personality, implicit trait policies, tenure, and situational judgment test (SJT)
performance. The results supported several hypothesized relationships within the model, where
ITPs were found to partially mediate the relationship between International Personality Item Pool
(IPIP) traits and SJT performance, and ITPs were found to significantly predict SJT performance.
Results failed to support the hypothesis that tenure, a proxy for specific job knowledge,
moderated the relationship between ITPs and SJT performance. Overall, these findings support
the call to reframe SJTs as measures of general domain knowledge, which has implications for
both theory and practice. These implications are discussed along with proposed directions for
future research.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Alexander Edward, "Implicit Trait Policies and Situational Judgment Tests: How Personality Shapes Judgments of Effective Behavior" (2023). Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations. 42.
https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/iop_etd/42