FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-21/03

Title and Subtitle: Screening Air Traffic Control Specialists With the MMPI-2: Two New Scales to Increase Predictive Utility

Report Date: February 2021

Authors: Greene R, Nichols D, Front C, King R

Abstract: The FAA began using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2 (MMPI-2) for the psychological screening of Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs) in January 2008 after a research effort at the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) involving 1,014 participants. Subsequently, norms were compiled for the first 5,500 ATCS candidates who took the MMPI-2 as a screening test for operational purposes. This report examines the operational use of the MMPI-2 from 2008 to 2020. During that time, the FAA administered the MMPI-2 to a total of 20,385 ATCS candidates.

The present study had two goals: (1) To re-calculate MMPI-2 operational norms with the larger ATCS candidate sample in order to discover whether any updates to those norms were needed, and (2) to empirically examine the MMPI-2 scales that have most frequently resulted in referrals for further psychological assessment with the aim of reducing the number of such referrals by improving the predictive utility of the MMPI-2 screenings. A reduction in false positive findings at the time of screening, without increasing false negatives, would reduce the number of referrals for complete psychological assessments, thereby maintaining aviation safety while contributing to a more efficient and cost-effective overall medical clearance process for ATCS candidates.

The operational norms remain virtually unchanged. The resulting scales, FAA-L and FAA-RCTY, will serve to identify those applicants whose pattern of item endorsement warrants a closer review and will be adjusted as operational experience with them accumulates.

Key Words: Personnel Screening, Personnel Selection, Psychological Testing

No. of Pages: 39