In her book, “Blowing my cover – My life as a CIA spy”, by Lindsey Morgan she confirms the fact that the Central Intelligence Agency does psychological profiling of new hires.
Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct(s), such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual.
The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics. By samples of behavior, one means observations of an individual performing tasks that have usually been prescribed beforehand, which often means scores on a test.
These responses are often compiled into statistical tables that allow the evaluator to compare the behavior of the individual being tested to the responses of a norm group. Psychological testing is used extensively in government in employment purposes.
She describes her experience this way:
“The CIA put me up at the Hilton, in McLean, Virginia. I had received a letter warning me that I was not to share with anyone the nature of my business and that I should report to building X, not far from the hotel, at eight on Monday morning.
The first order of business was a complete physical and a drug test. I had smoked pot once between the time of my initial application – in which I’d reported drug use as “a few times in college” – and the current test.
Seated in a barren conference room, eight other candidates and I were handed slips of paper and told that before undergoing our drug test and polygraph we should write down any criminal activity or incidences of drug use. I was the only person sheepishly to pick up a pen.
After the physical exam, we tool a series of multiple choice tests. One particularly asinine test contained in excess of two thousand questions. There were bizarre true/false statements like “I would rather be a florist than a firefighter” and confusingly worded ones such as “I rarely like to torture small animals” (pg 11-12).
Other questions Moran mentions included:
1) True/false “I have never wished that I were a member of the opposite sex.”
2) True/false ” I have never engaged in unusual sexual practices.”
During her polygraph exam:
1) Was I a member of a terrorist organization?
2) Had I ever willfully damaged any government property?
3) Did I intend to answer all the questions truthfully?
For more on CIA spy Lindsay Moran see website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Moran