The Self-Description Inventory+, Part 1: Factor Structure and Convergent Validity Analyses

Civil Aerospace Medical Institute2013PDFTech ReportBleckley, M. KathrynCivil Aerospace Medical InstituteUnited States. Office of Aerospace MedicineUnited StatesAir traffic controllersSelection and appointmentPersonalityAptitude testsFactor analysisValidityDOT/FAA/AM-13/13Each year the FAA hires approximately 900 new air traffic controller candidates, the majority of whom take the Air Traffic Selection and Training test battery, better known as AT-SAT. This test, developed in 1997, is based on a job/task analysis conducted by Nickels, Bobko, Blair, Sands, & Tartak (1995). The test was developed as separate modules with eight subtest modules included in the current version. One module, the Experience Questionnaire (EQ), measures 12 scales of personality. The current report examines the possibility of replacing the EQ with a Five Factor Model (FFM) measure of personality, the Self-Description Inventory + (SDI+). We examine the factor structure of the SDI+ and its convergent validity with the Goldberg Adjective Checklist. Our results show that the SDI + has scales that are intercorrelated in a manner consistent with the FFM (Experiment 1), a factor structure consistent with its design (Experiment 2), and high levels of convergent validity with the Goldberg adjective checklist (Experiment 3). Because it has met the criteria showing it to be an FFM instrument, we will conduct concurrent validity research to determine if the SDI+ has greater predictive utility than the EQ.119