Socio-Economic Status, Test Bias and the Selection of Police

Many psychology tests used in the employment field have potential ethnic bias. In a study of college students in a mid-Western Junior College, students were asked to answer selected items from the Inwald Personality Inventory to determine the impact critical items from this inventory might have on the selection of police. The test results show that economic status can affect the score of minority applicants on the IPI test. This paper will show that a comparison of the test scores of the subjects of this study, and the overall success rate of African-American candidates for the Chicago Police Department indicate that selected “critical items” from the IPI test can negatively affect the employment opportunity of African-Americans as police officers.