The State of Research on Situational Judgment Tests: A Content Analysis and Directions for Future Research

Situational judgment tests (SJTs) have become popular selection methods, with 59 empirical studies having been published since 1990. In contrast to prior narrative reviews or meta-analyses, this study develops (a) a comprehensive structure of SJT features, or “attributes,” (b) uses this structure to quantitatively and qualitatively summarize existing research in a content analysis, and then (c) uses the content analysis to generate directions for future research. The review is organized around a single question: What are the current practices in SJT research? Using this question as a foundation, we focus the content analysis on three significant theoretical and practical themes: (a) SJT development, scoring methods, and uses; (2) types of reliability estimates reported for SJTs, and (3) attributes that enhance or reduce internal consistency reliability.