The multi-million dollar psychological testing industry has been criticized for unreliability.

In a case involving testing for jobs at Target Stores, for instance, expert witnesses had thrown into question both the validity and the reliability of the test used, called Psychscreen, which had a 61 percent false positive rate; in other words, more than 6 of every 10 qualified applicants failed it.16 Recent studies reveal a very low correlation between good tests results and effective performance at work. Some wonder if American employers put so much stock in psychological testing out of an urge to get a quick fix on something that is impossible to quantify. As one writer put it: “We have personality in the sense that we have a consistent pattern of behavior.

But that pattern is complex … personality is contingent: it represents an interaction between our internal disposition and tendencies and the situation that we find ourselves in.”17 Assuming psychological testing is rife with problems, what could employers do instead to screen job applicants?