Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal Success-Adult Form (BASIS-A) Inventory and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) Antisocial (ANT)-Scale: A Comparative Measure of Antisocial Traits in Law Enforcement Candidates

Corruption and misconduct within law enforcement agencies have created greater emphasis on personnel selection practices. Researchers strongly suggest that the pre-employment procedures need improvements in prediction of psychological variables (i.e., antisocial behavior) in law enforcement applicants. As a result, psychological evaluations have become more widely used in law enforcement agencies. The purpose of the present study was to examine the use of an objective measure called the Basic Adlerian Scale for Interpersonal Success-Adult Inventory (BASIS-A) as a predictor of antisocial traits in law enforcement applicants. This study assessed the relationship between the selected Going Along (GA), Taking Charge (TC), and Being Cautious (BC) scales of the BASIS-A Inventory and the Antisocial Feature Scale and subscales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) in thirty-two law enforcement pre-employment candidates from one psychological assessment agency in the Midwest. The results revealed that two selected BASIS-A Scales (TC and GA) correlated with two of the PAI (ANT) subscales more specifically the BASIS-A (TC) scale correlated positively with the PAI (ANT-E and ANT-S) subscales and the (GA) scale correlated negatively with the PAI (ANT-E and ANT-S) subscales. These findings suggest that the BASIS-A Inventory may be a useful, objective tool for assessing antisocial traits in law enforcement candidates.