SHARP SCRATCH
Back in the early 1980s I was a new graduate looking for a job; however, the UK was dominated by strikes, unrest and three million unemployed. Like Lorraine I was a lone parent in need of a wage, but far more interested in playing in my girl band. In time I found a job in the Personnel Department of Salford Health Authority as a trainee, given a precious one day a week back at university to study towards my professional qualifications. My first impressions of the NHS were of dusty files of bureaucratic memoranda and endless meetings in former Victorian workhouses. I knew almost nothing about being a Personnel Officer, save for some advice in a Careers Service leaflet describing a role somewhere between a welfare officer and the ‘middleman’ between management and workers. In fact, the job had more in common with an internal police officer: checking vast rule books and issuing warnings, suspensions and dismissals. In my first busy hospital job I might have to deal with a drunken pharmacist in the morning, angry trade unions at lunch-time, and exhausted junior doctors as I tried to leave for home.
When the chance came I jumped at the chance to train in psychometric testing. Like Lorraine, I was hoping for an insight into my own personality and what my future might hold. The idea for this book arose from a question I was asked by a Chief Nurse: could a multiple murderer such as Beverley Allitt, or more recently, Lucy Letby, have been identified as dangerous by a psychometric test?
When the chance came I jumped at the chance to train in psychometric testing. Like Lorraine, I was hoping for an insight into my own personality and what my future might hold. The idea for this book arose from a question I was asked by a Chief Nurse: could a multiple murderer such as Beverley Allitt, or more recently, Lucy Letby, have been identified as dangerous by a psychometric test?
The premise of Sharp Scratch is that a non-clinical ‘public use’ test of the sort used for job selection might flag up a malevolent personality. Firstly, I trawled the research and found correlations between tests such as Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist and the type of public use tests used for staff selection, such as Cattell’s 16PF. I found correlations and was also alerted to what is known as a test's Motivational Distortion score, a 'faking good' score that gives a warning to investigate the candidate more deeply. Back in the 1980s computer scoring of tests was less common and I was encouraged to score tests by hand using a template and then map out the traits by hand, as illustrated below.
My brief career in music was another inspiration in writing Sharp Scratch. In 1978 I was drawn to the liberating call of punk rock and the heady Manchester scene alongside Joy Division, The Fall, and early incarnations of Simply Red and The Smiths. Together with Louise Alderman I co-founded all-girl bands Property Of.. and Electra Complex, followed by stints playing bass with the Passage and God's Gift. Thanks to occasional re-releases I get the chance to re-live the tiny part I played in an exciting moment in Manchester's musical history.
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