RANK-ORDERED MATCHING - VALIDITY STUDIES UTILIZING QUALITATIVE DATA -A PROPOSED MODEL AND SOME EMPIRICAL RESULTS

The classic paradigm of a validity study in personnel selection and in other personality assessment procedures requires that the predictor a nd the criterion should be quantifiable. However, in actuality there a re many situations where either the predictor or the criterion or both cannot be meaningfully represented numerically. In this paper, a rank -ordered matching method is proposed to deal with the validation of qu alitative materials. The method was applied to an occupational setting . Holistic reports written by experienced psychologists, on the basis of protocols of ability and personality tests were found to be signifi cantly valid (median g = 0.48). Holistic reports written by experience d graphologists, on the basis of hand written scripts were found to be invalid (median g = 0.00)