Should you accept that new job

                 that requires you to get a security

                 clearance?

                 Should you accept that new job

                Assignment that requires you to

                get a security clearance? 

     Recently, Dr. LeRoy A. Stone (http://www.home.earthlink.net~lastone2/home.html) has been made to see that his developed test, the Personnel Security Standards Psychological Questionnaire (PSSPQ), is being requested for use by individuals who are contemplating entering the adjudication process that might lead to their obtaining a high-level U.S. Government security clearance.  This instrument, which mainly, in the past, has seen use only by commercial organizations, rather than at the involved individual level, is rather fully described in www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html.  Scientific journal articles and papers that have made use of informational results from this instrument have been published and/or presented at scientific meetings.  Listings for some of these can be found at:  www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/publications.html.

     It has been decided that the PSSPQ will now be made commercially available to individuals who presumably are contemplating entering the governmental adjudication process that must be followed before a high-level security clearance will, or will not, be granted.  Quite long periods of time (up to over a couple of year's time) are presently being encountered with the investigation/adjudication process that is involved when one is being evaluated for possible security clearance granting (i.e., see: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/securityclearancewaiting.html).  Testing results arising from the taking of the PSSPQ can provide the tested individual with information regarding his or her own relative position on each of the numerous factors or aspects of one's past and present life that   are investigated and which are used by the Government in it's decision to grant or not to grant a particular security clearance.  The tested individual can be given a probability figure regarding his/her chances for being successful and ending up with a granted security clearance.  Persons who are being considered by their employers for reassignment, but that such reassignment would require being successfully granted a high-level security clearance would very definitely want to avoid the embarrassment and unwanted consequences of being a final failure in the security clearance process.  Persons who are also being considered for new employment, involving a position that requires successful obtaining of a high-level security clearance, should also be highly interested, very early on in the process, in learning whether they might be successful or not in the security clearance adjudication process.

     Most people, except for those who have gone through the security clearance process or those who hire such people, are not usually aware that the adjudication process for high-level clearances may involve as long as one years time, a few require even longer periods of time before a final decision is rendered.  Results from the PSSPQ can provide a quite accurate prediction regarding the final success or failure in being granted the necessary security clearance following the involved adjudication process.  Its empirical validity coefficient is 0.79; generally its accuracy is in the 95%+ range.  It is interesting to note that upon cross-validation, the empirical validity coefficient only decreased slightly, to 0.74.   Why wait for a year before learning whether you are successful or unsuccessful in your potential attempt to obtain the necessary security clearance.  Instead, you can, rather early on, attempt to learn whether the lengthy, security clearance, adjudication process might result in a favorable decision.   If you come to believe, early on, that you would most likely end up, following a lengthy adjudication process, with being informed that you will NOT be granted the wanted clearance, then it would be best that you never started the process going in the first place.  However, if early on in the process you have very good reason for being optimistic about being granted a clearance, then you would be well advised to accept the offered job or new work assignment.

     After 'taking' the PSSPQ, its results can be scored and interpreted in less than a week and the involved individual will then possess very relevant and valuable information about the individual's chances are to be successful in the security clearance adjudication process.   The costs/charges for taking the PSSPQ and obtaining its results are quite reasonable.  For $125.00 the involved individual will be provided a copy of the PSSPQ along with a answer-sheet.  When completed, both of these are returned to Dr. Stone for scoring and interpretation.  Involved individuals will be provided with T-scores (Mean = 50, Standard Deviation = 10; using norms based upon a couple hundred male and female Americans who were being considered/adjudicated for Top Secret, Special Compartmented Information level clearances when they first provided their responses to PSSPQ items) for 11 adjudication-concern areas, a LIE scale and a Total PSSPQ score   A probability estimation for final success/failure in eventually obtaining a high-level clearance will be stated; these probabilities esimations are given on a scale from 0.00 to 1.00.  Anyone wishing to 'take' the PSSPQ should contact Dr. LeRoy A. Stone.  His e-mail address is lastone2@earthlink.net. His 'snail-mail' address is: P.O. Box 395, Harpers Ferry, WV 25424-0395.  All communications are entirely confidential.  If desired by the involved individual, he/she can very easily deal as an anonymous person in the 'taking' of the PSSPQ and obtaining its interpreted results.  Dr. Stone is not currently associated, by employment or contract, with any 'sensitive' U.S Government agency or organization.
 

Note - for persons considering a wanting to be administered the PSSPQ, who might want a fairly short, but very complete, description of the security clearance domain involving the U.S. Government as well as an expanded description of the PSSPQ, the reader of this web-page would be advised to 'click' on (i.e., link) to the following five web-pages for pertinent related information; their addresses are:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/securityclearances.html

      (The above describes the basis, requirement and underlying methodology
      pertaining  to US. security clearances) 

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html

      (The above should be regarded as the index or "first page" to read when
      wanting knowledge about the PSSPQ) 

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/hrandsecdirectors.html

      (The above was designed especially to present information to an organization's
      HR and Security leader personnel) 

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqfaq.html

      (The above was created to include many "frequently asked questions" [along
      with answers], regarding the PSSPQ, that have been posed to Dr. Stone
      during the past couple of years) 

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/increasesuccesschances.html

     (The above was written so as to explain how the obtaining, possession, and
     use of PSSPQ scoring and interpertative information can provide assistance to
     an individual to achieve increased success with respect to employment matters)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqcertificate.html

     (This set of pages details Dr. Stone's recent decision to 'award' an attractive
     certificate that communicates that it's recipient 'passed' the PSSPQ at a
     'high level' and that this inplies that the recipient can be expected to be highly
     successful regarding the granting of high-level security clearance status.)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqcomparison.html

     (This section describes in detail how the PSSPQ is exclusively the only actually
     available source of highly accurate predictive information regarding possible 
     success/failure to be granted high-level security clearance status.)

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqhelpgetclearance.html

     (This set of web site pages is devoted to description of advantages of becoming
     knowledgeable regarding whether oneself will be successful or not in eventually
     being granted high-level security clearance status.)