John A. Johnson

My research has been aimed at improving the validity of self-report personality tests by testing alternative models of the cognitive, motivational, and social dynamics underlying the act of responding to individual personality items. Factors I have studied include (1) properties of the test items (item content, wording, ambiguity, subtlety); (2) characteristics of the test-taker (cognitive abilities, social skills, personality traits); and (3) social demand characteristics of the testing context. I have been particularly interested in specifying how these three factors affect the validity of personality tests during personnel selection. I am also interested in methods for improving the validity and pragmatic utility of computer-generated, narrative personality reports for single individuals.