Page Two Senator Grassley Polygraph Testing Perhaps employers have a point when they say that a properly administered test in the hands of a responsible employer is a valuable and necessary tool. I note that the bill introduced by the Chairman and ranking member of this Committee would exempt the federal government and state and local governments. It would also allow polygraphs to be administered to persons employed by defense contractors who have access to classified material. In addition to these exemptions, the measure passed by the House of Representatives in March exempts private security agencies, day care centers, nursing homes, electric power generating companies, and permits polygraph tests of employees or prospective employees with direct access to government-controlled drugs. Mr. Chairman, I am glad you are holding this hearing, because it is not clear to me yet how, or even whether, the federal government should regulate polygraph tests. I am looking forward to reviewing the record of this hearing as I try to reach a decision. American TESTIMONY OF Leonard D. Goodstein, Ph.D. Executive Director AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCITION before the COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES UNITED STATES SENATE on the subject of S.1815 THE POLYGRAPH PROTECTION ACT April 23, 1986 Honorable Orrin G. Hatch, Chair 1200 Seventeenth St N W Washington, DC 20036 (202) 955-7600 I am Leonard D. Goodstein, Ph.D., Executive Director of the American Psychological Association (APA), and I am pleased to submit this statement to the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee in support of S. 1815, the Polygraph Protection Act. This bill would prevent the use of lie detectors by employers, and APA strongly favors its passage. APA is a professional organization representing 87,000 psychologists who work as researchers, clinicians, educators and consultants in many subfields of psychology, including those areas involving the development and use of scientifically valid personnel selection methods. It is the opinion of APA that scientific evidence for the validity of polygraph tests to detect deceptive behavior, particularly in the area of employment screening, is unsatisfactory. The APA Council of Representatives, our chief policy-making body, passed a resolution on February 1, 1986 which states that the reliability of polygraph tests is unsatisfactory. The text of the resolution follows: "The conduct of polygraph tests to select employees, to ascertain the honesty of employees, and to determine the truthfulness of aspects in criminal investigations has increased significantly in recent years. APA has great reservations about the use of polygraph tests to detect deception. Despite many years of development of the polygraph, the Those giving polygraph tests often have limited training and expertise in psychology and in the interpretation of psychophysiological measures. There is the possibility of great damage to the innocent persons who must inevitably be labeled as deceptors in situations where the base rate of deception is low; an unacceptable number of false positives would occur even should the validity of the testing procedures be quite high. In consideration of the above, it shall be APA policy that: Polygraph tests used in all applied settings should be based on adequate psychological and psychophysiological training and sophistication. Their use by psychologists must be consistent with the [APA] Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and the [APA] Ethical Principles of Psychologists. They should be used only when such use is justified by the existence of sufficient data on their reliability and validity for the particular population, Polygraph tests have been used for years in attempting to detect deceptiveness, most visibly in the area of trying to discover the guilt or innocence of criminal suspects. More recently, many private employers have been using polygraph tests as a screening device for prospective or present employees to test for a range of dishonest behavior. However, from a scientific point of view, there is not sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a polygraph test can accurately determine if a person is telling the truth or is lying, particularly when it is used in employment screening. The polygraph instrument itself simply records physiological reactions, including respiration rate, heart rate and perspiration. There is no conclusive scientific evidence that the physiological reactions measured in a polygraph test directly indicate that a subject is lying; the polygraph test is not in itself a "lie detector". It is the interpretation of the physiological responses recorded by the polygraph instrument that have been used to determine deceptive behavior. This interpretation relies on the examiner's behavior and judgement, and many people who give polygraph tests in employment settings have limited training and expertise in psychology and in the interpretation of psychophysiologcal measures. The method used most often in employment screening situations is known as |