Agent selection for Extension has rested primarily on the judgment of supervisors. Turnover has been considerable. Extension administrators have searched for ways to more accurately identify applicants who can be expected to continue their employment for reasonable periods of service; employing and training new personnel is costly. Standard psychological tests have been administered to Indiana personnel in a search for ways to predict potential performance on the job (see E. R. Ryden, "Predicting Successful Performance," Journal of Cooperative Extension, Summer, 1965, pp. 103-109). The Strong Vocational Interest Blank was used to see if Extension personnel have unique interest patterns. This article reports the results of a study to determine the potentiality of this interest test as a means of predicting whether a person will continue in the Service or quit after a short period of employment.
Moon et al. (Thu,) studied this question.