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How do individuals structure their knowledge? How does this structure vary as a function of training? What are individuals’ implicit theories of personality? How do individuals perceive their organizational culture? These are all important questions facing occupational/organizational psychologists. Describes the technique of multi‐dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis and shows how it might be applied to these questions.

This study investigated the use of self‐assessments in predicting assessment centre outcome, looking at the difference between raw self‐assessments and self‐assessment accuracy scores. The subjects for the study were 60 engineers who attended a one‐day assessment centre in 1991‐1992 selecting trainers for an automotive manufacturer’s training programme. The measures used in the study were the assessor and candidate global exercise ratings, and it was found that self‐assessment accuracy was a better predictor of assessment centre outcome than the raw self‐assessment scores. It is suggested that if self‐assessments are to be used in assessment centres then they need to be thought of in conjunction with assessor ratings, and that self‐assessments may have a use in delivering feedback to candidates.