Abstract

Computer technology is being applied everyday to increasingly diverse and complex problems. These vast applications create a demand for able computer programmers and for valid selection tools to identify persons with aptitudes for this position. However, there has been little effort to systematically define the job of computer programmers and develop job-related, specific aptitude instruments. The purpose of the present study was (1) to develop a computer programmer aptitude inventory reflecting the selection dimensions resulted from a worker-oriented job analysis, and (2) to investigate the validity of the inventory for various groups of computer programmers. The 250 experimental items were pilot tested with 150 college students majoring in computer science and analyzed for difficulty, discrimination, and internal consistency, and finally 100 items were selected for the experimental form of the CPAI. Four field studies were then conducted with approximately 1600 computer programmers to revise and validate the experimental CPAI. It was found that the reliability coefficients of most of the subtests were acceptably high. As expected, there were also significant differences between computer programmers on the bases of education level, job level and college major, reflecting adequate construct validity of the CPAI. For the concurrent validation of the inventory, the CPAI was administered to currently employed computer programmers of a large software company, and the scores correlated with supervisors ratings of each programmer on overall performance (i. e., ability, personality, attitude, and the like). The validity coefficient of the CPAI was .36 for this group. The CPAI total score, as well as four of its subtests, were found to significantly relate to the ratings, although the group appeared to be highly selected and restricted in range of both predictor and criterion, and the ratings were on the overall characteristics, not on specific job-performance. Factor analysis revealed two significant factors, the data transformation factor and analysis/evaluation factor, which could provide test developers with future directions for developing psychological tests in the areas of software. In shot, the problems and limitations of the experimental CPAI has been thoroughly examined and revised thorough the validation studies, and this resulted in an enhanced, i. e., more reliable and valid, aptitude instrument consisting of 6 subtests with 110 items. The findings of the present study, therefore, indicate that the CPAI can be used as a selection tool in industrial settings. The implications of these findings, limitations of this study, and the direction of future research were discussed.