ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of the “situation” as it relates to the design, implementation, and interpretation of the results from situational judgment tests (SJTs). The point of view taken here is that both researchers and practitioners have been all too sanguine about conceptualizing the notion of the situation. Hattrup and Jackson (1996) stressed the importance of individual judgments that are caused by an interaction between the situation and individual differences. The individual tries to make sense of the situation and apply the appropriate personal resources to perform in that type of situation. Hattrup and Jackson contended that middle-level constructs (e.g., situational judgments) will provide improved prediction over generalized measures (ability, personality, etc.) when the criterion is tied to specific performance demands.
