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Admissions Test Scores as Predictors of Career Achievement in Psychology

Author(s):
Schrader, William B.
Publication Year:
1978
Report Number:
GREB-76-01R
Source:
ETS GRE Board Report
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
28
Subject/Key Words:
Career Performance, College Admissions Assessments, Psychologists, Attainment Measures

Abstract

This exploratory study is concerned with identifying several measures of career attainment for psychologists and with relating these measures to SAT® and GRE® scores and to other relevant characteristics. The basic hypothesis of the study is that abilities measured at the time of admission to college or graduate school are related to career performance after earning the doctorate. The analysis sample for this study included 215 psychologists who had earned a doctorate in psychology in 1963-64, who had earned a bachelor's degree between 1954 and 1961, and who had retrievable test scores either on the SAT or on the Aptitude Test and an Advanced Test of the GRE. The small sample sizes (128 for SAT and 150 for GRE) and the limitation to one field do not provide an adequate basis for generalization. The results, however, are sufficiently promising to warrant further research. They also suggest that GRE Advanced Test scores (which correlated .41 with citations based on the Social Science Citation Index) may be more closely related to career performance than are measures of aptitude.

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