And the FAA is misusing a tool designed for mental health therapists, not HR weenies.
The MMPI-2 is administered (via computer) as part of the pre-employment ATCS medical examination under the supervision of trained proctors. It is administered by Aerospace Medicine, not HR "weenies." HR "weenies" can not purchase the test, as they do not hold the appropriate credentials, such an MD, PhD, or PsyD.
It is administered as a screening or "case referral" tool. If a candidate's scores across the different scales are less than or exceed certain criteria, then a second, independent evaluation by a licensed Clinical Psychologist is required. Typically, a different test (or tests) would be used in the followup. The consulting Clinical Psychologist provides an assessment to the FAA Flight Surgeon for the hiring region. It is the FAA Regional Flight Surgeon, based on the medical and psychological information presented on a candidate, who determines if a candidate is medically qualified for the ATCS occupation.
The MMPI was designed as a diagnostic instrument, explicitly and purposefully. An old joke is that is was developed to sort out depressed Scandanavian farmers in Minnesota from the rest of the US population (it was developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota, after all). Joking aside, the MMPI is used to help determine, along with other diagnostic information, if an examinee is schizophrenic, depressed, paranoid, etc.
The MMPI-2 replaced Cattell's 16PF, which had been used as part of the controller pre-employment medical examination since the 1960s, in a similar role as a "case finder." The original rationale for the psychological screening was to identify candidates who might be "at risk" of succumbing to the pressure and stress of the controller occupation.
There are published studies and conference presentations on the history, use and efficacy of personality assessment in the controller occupation. The research has found that the 16PF, as scored by the FAA Aerospace Medicine rules, was ineffective in predicting relevant outcomes such as disability retirement (due to stress) or worker's compensation claims for stress-related complaints in long-term followups of controllers hired since the 1981 PATCO strike.
Given the research findings, the FAA, rightly so, began to look at alternatives several years ago. After a period of data collection and analysis involving several hundred new hires, FAA psychologists and physicians determined that the MMPI-2 was an appropriate instrument for use in a pre-employment medical examination for an occupation with clear psychological demands.
It is a reasonable and prudent course of action, one that many Fortune 500 companies take in executive hiring, for example. So what the FAA is doing with the MMPI-2 is mainstream, reasonable, prudent, and justified on the basis of science and data.
