Final answer:
Applicants and employees may complain about personality tests due to issues with reliability, meaning test results may not be consistent over time, and validity, where tests might not accurately predict job performance or capture true personality traits.
Step-by-step explanation:
Applicants and employees may complain about personality tests due to concerns regarding reliability and validity. Reliability refers to the consistency of test results over time. For instance, a study that administered the MMPI-2-RF to police officers showed shifts in their character traits over a four-year period, potentially raising questions about the test's reliability in reflecting stable personality dimensions.
Regarding validity, if a personality test does not accurately measure what it intends to or is not predictive of job performance, it can lead to candidate dissatisfaction. For example, high agreeableness may be beneficial for a customer support role but not to the extent that it prevents adequate handling of customer issues. If tests do not accurately reflect job performance or if individuals feel they cannot answer self-report items objectively, the perceived validity of these tests suffers.
Employers use personality tests to avoid making a poor hiring decision, akin to buying a 'lemon'. However, uncertainty in assessing candidates' real-world performance remains. The lack of perfect information means employers may have to rely on incomplete indicators of future job performance, potentially leading to the use of personality tests with questionable reliability and validity.