Affect and its Assessment in Personnel Selection

  • Nishi Misra DRDO Defence Institute of Psychological Research Delhi
  • Apoorva Ghanekar DRDO Defence Institute of Psychological Research Delhi
  • Arunima Gupta DRDO Defence Institute of Psychological Research Delhi
Keywords: Negative affectivity, Positive affectivity, Selection, Word association test

Abstract

A sizable amount of literature supports the impact of positive and negative affectivity on organisational effectiveness. Higher positive affectivity is associated with experiencing a preponderance of positive feeling states, while higher levels of negative affectivity are associated with negative feelings. Right person for the right job can be selected if employers consider these emotional dispositions during the selection process. The present study was undertaken with aims to develop a Word Association Test with objective scoring system for assessment of positive and negative affect. A comprehensive list of 120 negative, positive, and neutral words each was prepared after consulting affective lexical resources. Ratings were taken from five SMEs on valence, control and intensity of each word. Two lists of 60 words each were prepared for data collection on 410 male subjects aged 16-18 years. Unanswered or incomprehensible words were deleted, and 45 words were retained. Responses were categorised into positive, negative, neutral categories, and computation of the total number of positive, negative and neutral responses was carried out and objective scoring scheme was prepared. Inter-rater reliability was found to range between 0.46 to 0.85. The concurrent validity was determined against PANAS (-0.273**), and E and N scales of NEO-PI-R (0.20**)

Author Biographies

Nishi Misra, DRDO Defence Institute of Psychological Research Delhi

Dr. Nishi Misra, received her MPhil (Medical and Social Psychology) from Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi and PhD from Ranchi University, Ranchi. Currently working as Scientist ‘F’ at DRDO-Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Delhi. She has worked extensively in the areas of suicides and fratricides, job stress and post- traumatic stress in Armed Forces. She has published of research papers in various journals and books. Presently she is working in the area of development of new selection system for the Indian Armed Forces

Apoorva Ghanekar, DRDO Defence Institute of Psychological Research Delhi
Ms. Apoorva Ghanekar is working as a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at the DRDO-Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Delhi and pursing her PhD in Psychology at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
Arunima Gupta, DRDO Defence Institute of Psychological Research Delhi
Mrs. Arunima Gupta is working as a Scientist ‘G’ and head of the Personality division at the DRDO-Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Delhi. Her research interests primarily include personnel selection, personality profiling and personality assessment.
Published
2018-10-03
How to Cite
Misra, N., Ghanekar, A., & Gupta, A. (2018). Affect and its Assessment in Personnel Selection. Defence Life Science Journal, 3(4), 316-319. https://doi.org/10.14429/dlsj.3.13401