Question

What is the difference between actual and theoretical criterion, are there any issue that can come between the two?

Answer 1

Actual and theoretical criteria are benchmarks in performance appraisal systems that enable I/O psychologists to assess good or poor performance at the workplace. Theoretical criteria refer to the idealized concepts of good and bad performance that exist in theory. It assumes an ideal world in which all the relevant aspects of job performance can be measured accurately. That is why a theoretical criterion is often called an ultimate criterion. Theoretical criteria do not reveal how job performance can be measured in practice. That is where actual criteria come into play. Actual criteria specify what psychologists should measure to check if the theoretical criteria have been satisfied.

The theoretical criteria and the actual criteria never match perfectly, and there are always differences between the two. This is because the actual criteria may be incomplete and factors that are not indicators of job performance may also affect them. These differences in measurement are called criterion deficiency and criterion contamination. Criterion contamination occurs when the measured job performance contains factors that are unrelated to the behavior that is being measured. Criterion deficiency takes place when factors that might actually influence job performance are not included in the actual criteria.