Theoretical background

The tool was developed together with special units of blue light organizations & armies as well as psychologists. In addition, modern, aligned personality and risk models were incorporated (Endrass, 2018 & Marneros, 2015; "Dark Triad" concept by Paulhus & Williams, 2002; mental abilities: Amthauer, 2000 & McCrew 2012; "Big-Five" personality model: Costa and McCrae, 2008).
The effectiveness of the tool has been studied and confirmed on extreme groups (prisoners, conspiracy believers, ...).

Special case aviation

For recruitment procedures of aviation-related companies (security, control persons, technicians, ground and cabin staff, suppliers, ...) the DVO (EU) 2015/1998 and 2020/910 respectively apply since January 2022. Our tool supports the implementation of these requirements to show appropriate internal measures to defend against insider threats and radicalization.

Scientific background

Authors
Jörg A. Prieler

Measurement object / dimensions
Personality traits are recorded that have proven to be prognostically valid for the risk assessment of
1. Insider Threats &
2. Extremism/racism tendencies.
3. Optionally, minimum requirements for basic mental skills for security checks can be tested. The TET is based on the subjective self-assessment of the test subjects. Great attention was paid to recognizing aggravation/simulation tendencies.

Area(s) of application
Forensic, occupational, industrial and organizational psychology. The TET can be used universally in companies of all sizes, in all sectors and in all areas of the company.

Execution
The procedure consists of just over 200 normative and ipsative items and can be carried out online, offline or in paper-and-pencil form. It is an individual procedure; group application is possible. There is a large item pool for each of the 34 dimensions In the online and offline versions, the items required for the current test are randomly "drawn" from this item pool for each dimension. In practice, this means that each respondent is given a different test. This effectively prevents the test from being "hacked" (the number of possible different test administrations is virtually infinite). This could be realized by using methods of the "Item Response Theory" (IRT) ("Rating Scale Model").

Execution time
Approx. 30 minutes

Reliability
Reliability in the sense of internal consistency is given due to the validity of the rating scale model.
Nevertheless, Cronbach's alpha and retest reliabilities were calculated:
In a study of 1279 people, reliability coefficients for the individual scales were determined to be in the range of 0.69 to 0.93 (Cronbach's alpha).
To determine stability, 112 people were tested a second time at four-month intervals. The retest reliabilities are between 0.66 and 0.80.

Validity
The validity of the TET is given because there is a high level of agreement with other test procedures (integrity test, at least scale-specific, as a comparable instrument does not yet exist) that measure the same abilities, and because there is no agreement with test procedures that measure something else (convergent and discriminant validity).

In a second validation study (special units and normal persons, N=198) with subsequent cross-validation (special units and normal persons, N=182), the scale differences between these two groups were analyzed using inferential statistics (variance and discriminant analysis).
In a third validation study (legally sentenced prisoners according to Austrian Penal Code § 87, intentional grievous bodily harm, N=32 + legally sentenced prisoners according to Austrian § 3 VG, re-activation N=30), the TET was administered and compared with the scale scores of the norm sample. The effectiveness of the tool was therefore examined and confirmed for extreme groups (prisoners, conspiracy believers, etc.).
Evaluation / Standards
Standard values (stanine scale) are issued for the individual scales, and work is ongoing to expand them. There are currently norms for aviation personnel (N=15,535), nursing personnel (N=1,518), special units (N=1,309), security personnel (2,004) and normal persons (N=8,158); breakdown by gender, age (few over 50, otherwise realistic) and level of education available. The presentation of norm tables is omitted for copyright reasons, as is customary internationally with many test publishers today; the norms are part of the evaluation software and are not published.

Execution methods
Possible on PCs/laptops/touchpads without restriction. On mobile phones only to a limited extent, as input with a finger on the 6-step scale is somewhat laborious (but possible in principle). There is an online, offline (dongle protected) and P&B version (manual data entry required).

Languages
German, English, Spanish, French, Croatian, Arabic, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Bulgarian.
If required, translation into any language is possible.

Security and data protection
The IR&C system meets the latest IT requirements ("banking standard"). As an additional security measure, personal codes can also be assigned instead of the specific names of the persons tested. Customers only need to provide sufficient PCs/laptops/touchpads with or without an Internet connection (on/off-line capable, also intranet-capable).