ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL OF INTEGRAL INDEX OF GENERAL INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES DIAGNOSTICS IN THE CANDIDATES FOR SERVICE IN THE NATIONAL POLICE AND FOR TRAINING AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF UKRAINE

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of diagnosing the integral indicator of the level of general intellectual abilities with the Brief Tentative Selection Test, applied to the candidates for service in the National Police or for training at the Higher Educational Institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the course of their professional psychological selection. On the basis of the empirical data analysis, it was found that the level of education and the gender of candidates had the greatest impact on the value of the integral indicator of general intellectual abilities. The estimates of the individual test indices for certain categories of candidates were also defined. The empirical evidence suggests that the higher education graduates, trained for the work in the criminal police forces, have a higher level of intellectual development and a better ability to further learning and cognitive activities, as compared to patrol police officers. That is, they have a higher level of cognitive activity and better abilities to acquire new knowledge and skills in similar forms of activities.

Data analysis proves that women are more intellectually capable; they have a higher level of humanitarian education, better spatial orientation and abstract-logical thinking, and are more capable of numerical operations.

The diagnostics of the critical points of intelligence proves that the criminal police cadets have a higher overall level of knowledge and development of linguistic abilities and have a higher level of humanitarian education (p ≤ 0.014) compared to the police patrol staff. The cadets are more successful in performing numerical tasks for the establishment of regularities with geometric figures (p ≤ 0,001); they are more informed (p ≤ 0,001); have a deeper connection between the functioning of intelligence and different linguistic skills (p ≤ 0.002); have higher abilities in semantic generalization (р ≤ 0,003); have a higher level of technical intelligence, that is, they have better skills in using computer technologies, the Internet, etc. (р ≤ 0,001); are much better at numerical operations (p ≤ 0.001) and numerical regularities (p ≤ 0.002); have better abilities of synthesis and analysis of material, which enables them to abstract from specific phrases and switch to the sphere of interpretation of meanings, find the intersection of meanings, and then return to specific phrases again (p ≤ 0,002); have a much lower level of emotional destruction of cognitive processes (p ≤ 0.002); are able to use the language correctly, are more literate, have better knowledge of foreign languages (р ≤ 0,001); and have a higher level of mathematical abilities (p ≤ 0,001).

This research enables us to conclude that it is advisable to use the Brief Tentative Selection Test when carrying out professional selection of candidates for service in the National Police and for training at the higher education institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. It should be borne in mind that the widespread use of intellectual tests in the world practice for predicting professional success is due to their high reliability, especially when predicting the success of training (intelligence and related constructs give the highest validity of estimates – r = 0.45).