PRIVACY RIGHTS UNIT PROPOSED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200600051-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 1999
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: February 21, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE
per capita dues of 25 cents to $1 to finance
rebuilding of the union. He said the funds
would provide the means to make NFFE a
"real union," and take it out of the "sewing
circle" image some people have of it.
Wolkomir plans to invite all independent
Federal employe unions such as those that
represent the Rural Letter Carriers, postal
supervisors, Internal revenue, customs and
other employes, to form a federation to work
[From the Washington Post, Oct. 5, 19661
PRIVACY RIGHTS UNIT PROPOSED
(By Jerry Kluttz)
..Creation of a small Independent agency
headed by a distinguished citizen to oversee
invasions of Federal employe privacy was
suggested yesterday to the Senate Constitu-
tional Rights Subcommittee.
Alan F. Westin, a Columbia University pro-
fessor of public law and government, pro-
posed that the agency be sort of an "om-
budsman" where employes could go with
complaints that their constitutional rights
were being threatened or violated. His plan
impressed Chairman Sam J. Ervin (D-N.C.)
and Sen. Jacob Javits (R.-N.Y.).
As Westin saw it, and agency would be a
"sifting body" to determine legitimate com-
plaints. It would limit the use of lie de-
tector and psychological tests; give corn-
plaining employes hearings and the like.
The professor didn't believe the Civil Serv-
ice Commission could objectively handle em-
ploye complaints because it fixes many of
the policies which produced employe charges
that their constitutional rights of privacy
are being violated and which resulted In Er-
vin's bill, co-sponsored by 34 other Senators,
to protect these rights.
But Westin also thought that some pro-
visions of the Ervin bill were too broad and
sweeping and, at the Chairman's Invitation,
he promised to help rewrite the measure. '
Ervin said the language in his bill was in-
tended to prevent these among other abuses
which he said had occurred:
A supervisor who called five employes
under him at their homes to pressure them
to donate to a charity fund. He told them
he was compelled to meet the quota set for
his unit.
A supervisor in another agency who co-
erced employees to participate in their local
PTA's,
The Indoctrination of employes on po-
litical goals of the Johnson Administration,
and pressure placed on the employees to
work for those goals, such as open houting.
John A. McCart of AFL--CIO's Government
Employees Council, gave general endorse-
ment to the Ervin bill. He agreed that the
public has a right to know about possible
conflicts of interest but he said "overzealous
scrutiny" of personal finances of employees
could result in "loss of dignity and fear."
Hatch Act: The President signed into law
yesterday abill to set up a 12-man commis-
sion to review the Hatch Act which restricts
partisan political activities by Federal em-
ployes. The signing was applauded. by the
influential National Civil Service League
whose president J. Edward Day, commented
In part:
"We believe that the political neutrality of
the public service must continue to be pro-
tected, and yet recognize that we as a nation
may be approaching the point where we can-
not afford to place so large a portion of our
mature voters in a political 'no man's land i"
Kathryn H. Stone, a former member of the
Virginia House of Delegates, was appointed
chairman of a League committee of political
activity of public employes to study pos-
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 18, 19661
PERSONALITIES RESENT TESTING-TOUTED
MMPI SYSTEM or DETERMINING EMOTIONAL
STABILITY RIDDLED BY INVASION OF PRIVACY
CHARGES
(By Alfred Friendly)
"The whole field of personality testing Is in
both disrepute and disrepair." That harsh
charge against one of modern psychology's
most prideful constructions was thrown in
the practitioners' faces earlier this month by
a distinguished legal scholar and political
scientist.
Addres:,ing the American Psychological As-
sociation, Prof. Alan F. Westin of Columbia
University told the members something they
already knew and were worrying about, but
he put it in particularly blunt terms: There
is a large and growing antagonism to per-
sonality tests, not merely on grounds of their
doubtful effectiveness but principally as gross
invasions of privacy.
The hostility to psychological testing for
emotional and personal stability (as distinct
from aptitude, vocational and even intelli-
gence testing) is demonstrated by a pro-
vision of a bill Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. (D-
N.C.) introduced last month. One section
forbids any interrogation of any Federal em-
ployee about his personal relationships with
his family, his religious beliefs and practices
and his sexual conduct and attitudes. All
three categories are at the heart of psycho-
logical and psychiatric examinations for -
mental posture.
ALREADY CURTAILED
Sen. Ervin's bill followed extensive investi-
gations by Senate and House Committees on
invasion of privacy by, among other things,
personality testing. Meantime, there has
been a drastic curtailment of the use of such-
tests by Government agencies.
The American Psychological Association
acknowledges that the "attacks upon phy-
chological testing and upon psychologist-
guided selection methods reached a now
height in 1965" and that "this ... barrage
is the most serious attack that has ever been
launched by citizen groups or by Government
against any part of psychological research
and services."
There is a multitude of personality tests,
but.the one that appears to have become
the principal target of the critics and to
epitomize what they object to is the Minne-
sota Multipilasic Personality Inventory.
The psychologists seem to be stuck with it,
and for the time being their case for per-
sonality testing, as an aid in determining
emotional stability or as a screening device
or a warning flag to call attention to poten-
tial or future psychotics, rises and falls
with it.
It consists of 556 true-false questions,
some of them inconsequential and serving,
so to speak, as the Inert matter in a pre-
scription. The more significant questions
focus on the intensity of the subject's
religiosity, his attitudes about sex and his
own sexuality and his views about his
physical and psychic health and emotions.
AN EMERGING PATTERN
The rationale of the MMPI, based on much
experience and testing, is that people with
mental disturbances consistently tend to
answer the questions differently from those
whose mental state is healthy. The distinc-
tion does not come in single answers to
single questions, but in general patterns.
Thus, in a whole series of questions on
religiosity, a psychotic will tend to score
differently in toto than a normal person.
The stock phrase of the defenders of the
test is that the examiners "could not care
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lar question." They are unconcerned with
whether the respondent is Jew or Gentile,
whether he has frequent headaches or not or
professes to like his father better than his
mother. It is, rather, the degree of variance
In the totality of the responses from those of
the "norm"-or the degree of similarity to
those who are clearly mental cases-that is
supposed to provide the clue.
The logical jump inherent In the pro.
cedure is, however, formidab:-e. Does it
always, or even often, follow, because
patients in mental Institutions have, on the
average, a different pattern of answers from
those people, again on: the average, who are
running loose, that the test will usually spot
someone who is actually or potentially
emotionally unstable?
Moreover, despite enormous experience
with the MMPI-it was Initiated In 1937-
there seems to be meager empirical evidence
that the MMPI is really an accurate predic.
tor. The charge has been made that the
MMPI has never been "validated" in the
sense of having been shown to do what it is
supposed to do.
Although the literature on MMPI is volumi-
nous, the evidence for its "vallation" is
largely technical in context: it has been
"validated" for consistency, so that one
tester will get-the same results as another,
but not in the more persuasive sense. There
seems to be no evidence, for example, that
an impressive percentage of those tagged as
potentially unstable in, say, 1950, have actu-
ally become unstable ten years later.
But in the last couple of years, the heaviest.
criticism has come on another score: inva-
sion of privacy. The barrage was heavy In
the 1965 hearings before the Senate Subcom-
mittee on Constitutional Rights and in a
special inquiry of the House Government.
Operations Committee. Prof. Westin's attack
was only the most recent In a series.
BATTERING RAMS
In a sparkling analysis of the anatomy of
privacy and the mechanics of its Invasion,
Westin discusses in particular the battering
ram of "extraction"-the "entry into a per-
son's psychological privacy by requiring him
to reveal by speech or action those parts of
his memory and personality that he regards
as private."
The devices by which that invasion is ac-
complished are polygraphs (lie detectors)
and personality tests.
"It is one of the basic functions of pri-
vacy," Westin argues, "that it protect the
individual's need to choose those to whom he
will bare the true secrets of his soul and his
personality."
In this matter, Westin notes, psychologists
enjoy intimate trust when they function Be
counselors and clinicians but are not ac.
cepted when they function as testers for an
institutional client. Thus, "when person-
ality tests began to be used by the Federal
Government for civilian selection in peace-
time, all the privacy and liberty Issues in per-
sonality testing were raised to the forefront."
The trouble, Westin continues, Is com-
pounded by the fact that test phychologists
have not successfully explained how their
questions on sex, political Ideology and reli-
gion achieve the results they are said to,
but somehow do not depend on the specific
answers to specific questions. Part of the In-
vasion of privacy, he Implies, Is the unex-
plained magic of the test; If respondents
knew how one answer here and another an-
swer there about a very deeply held private
matter would disclose a helpful piece of
knowledge, their sense of Invasion might be
lessened.
Thus a patient may tell his physician some
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February 21, 1967 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE S 2359
and his habits without feeling that his pri-
vacy is assaulted because he senses how that
information can contribute to the doctor's
ultimate diagnosis.
Westin concludes:
'American society is unequivocally com-
mitted to the idea that religious notions
are private and that no governmental or
quasigovernmental authority (e.g., the cor-
poration, the secular private university, etc.)
should decide what is 'reasonable' in re-
liglous belief. Given this fact, how does the
psychologist, say that adding up this and
that question about religious belief ('I am a
special agent of God,' 'I believe in the second
coming of Christ,' etc.) to define personality'
disorders is not a judgment on what reli-
gious beliefs are 'reasonable' and 'not rea-
sonable'?"
ALL TESTS CURTAILED
The consequence of attacks of that sort
has been the virtual elimination of the
MMPI from the arsenal of Government test
procedures and, in fact, the near elimination
of all personality tests as selection devices.
Chairman John W. Macy Jr. of the Civil
Service Commission has forbidden their use
for selection purposes throughout Govern-
ment ment agencies where his writ runs and has.
ordered their application limited to adjuncts
of medical and psychiatric examination.
The State Department forbids their use
except where a question has first been raised
about the mental stability of an employee
and where the examination Is under the di-
rection of a psychiatrist.
The Job Corps claims never to have used
the MMPI and to be using other personality
[ne Peace Corps also uses the MMPI
extensively and in the 1965 hearings swore
by its efficiency. There, however, it is not
used as a selection screening device but only
later as a "de-selection" aid when the Corps-
man is in training, and in conjunction with
extremely extensive use of other tests and,
experience evaluations.
LOOKING TO FUTURE
The critics argue that the reduction in the
Government's use of personality tests is a
response to the current attacks And no guar-
antee for the future. Hence, they urge the
enactment of the Ervin bill.
Its basic trouble, however, would seem to
be that it throws the baby out with the
bath. Its language forbids any interroga-
tion_ about matters of sex, religious and
familial attitudes, thus barring even psy-
chiatric examinations in which those items
are highly significant. Surely at some times
for some employees-aircraft traffic control-
lers, men in command of nuclear weapons
systems, CIA agents, for example--a pretty
extensive verification of emotional balance
is essential.
In screening small numbers of candidates,
there are doubtless better examination pro-
cedures-tough interviews, "game" situa-
tions and fine-comb reviews of how the ap-
plicant has behaved under stress and ad-
versity in the past. But for large. numbers,
the temptation is strong to use a produo-
tion-line system. The question remains
whether any personality test fulfills that
function-and how violently it affronts an
increasingly recognized personal right.
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 22,. 1966]
HOMOSEXUAL QUERY ASKED IN STATE
DEPARTMENT
All male applicants for jobs in the State
Department are being asked, "Have you ever
engaged in a homosexual act?"
A State Department official disclosed this
yesterday in the wake of testimony before
a House Appropriations subcommittee that
80 employes left the Department' in 1966 as
security risks, Some resigned, others were The Senate Constitutional Rights subcom-
dismissed. mittee headed by Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C., is.
In the testimony released over the week- receiving thousands of complaints from fed-,
end, Deputy Assistant Secretary G. Marvin eral employes over the financial disclosure
Gentile said 28 left "for homosexual rea- requirement.
sons" and two for other reasons "such as The employes believe it is an unwarranted
excessive drinking, bad debts, and excessive invasion of their privacy and also is irrele-
use of leave." ' vant since most of the complaints have ab-
None of the persons involved in the Inves- solutely nothing to do with the awarding
tigations or dismissals were named, One of government contracts, or other Federal
was listed as a Foreign Service Office; of fiscal policy that could possibly pose a conflict
Class 2 with a salary of $20,835 a year. Half of interest situation.
a dozen others had salaries ranging above, ' The Commerce case is a classic example of
$15,000 a year. the government's "big brother" snooping at-
William J. Crockett, deputy under secre- titude into the affairs of its employes, al-
tary for administration, told the Committee though Ervin says many other complaints
the State Department is now putting heavy' ' are about situations just as outrageous,
emphasis on "preventive security" which he The Commerce employe was told that he
described as asking direct questions of ap-? answered unsatisfactorily a section of the
plicants for the Foreign Service and the financial disclosure form asking to list all
State Department's Civil Service so that, gifts received.
those with adverse characteristics can be What had happened was that the employe,
screened out before employment, feeling it was unnecessary to list such gifts as
bottle caps from the community welcome
[From the Evening Star, Nov. 7, 19661 wagon, answered that section by replying:
CRITICISM GREETS CSC PROPOSAL To KEEP "None-except for minor gifts; if listings are
DOSSIER ON EVERY EMPLOYEE required, more information as to value limit '
(By Joseph Young) is necessary."
A complete dossier on every federal and The Commerce Department apparently was
outraged
postal employe will soon be maintained in A Commerce he reply.
mpersonnel official wrote an
the government. official letter of warning to the employe:
The program already is stirring up con- ,your evident evasiveness indicates that
troversy, with Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C., chair- you may have some conflict of interest which
man of the Senate Constitutional Rights you are anxious to avoid disclosing. This is
Subcommittee, calling it another of the gov- P. very serious matter.
ernment's "big brother" moves to pry into "This letter constitutes a formal warning
the private lives of its employes. , that you have failed to comply with regula-
The Civil Service Commission, which tions. -
drafted the plan and is now asking various "If the form is not correctly executed and
agencies for suggestions on how to ample- returned by Sept. 20, 1966, I will have no
ment it, says the system is needed to give choice but to propose disciplinary action
government the necessary information about against you."
its manpower strengths and weaknesses. And yet the Civil Service Commission and
CSC officials say the data will be used for . top officials of the Johnson administration
promotion and training purposes as well as wonder why it is becoming increasingly more
manpower requirement planning that fed difficult for government to retain able em-
eral managers need to operate their programs ployes as well as recruit the cream-of-the-
effectively. crop of college graduates.
The data will be computerized in data Special session asked-Kenneth Lyons,
banks, which will make it available at a mo- . president of the National Association of Gov-
ment's notice to an individual agency or ernment Employes, has asked President
throughout the government as a whole, ' Johnson to call Congress into special session
The data will Include an employe's age, . immediately to enact another pay raise for
sex, race and nationality, his patterns of federal and postal employes this year.
sick leave use, education, training, experi. Lyons blasted this year's 2.9 percent pay
ence, physical handicaps, awards received, _ raise as totally inadequate, in view of the
appeals of adverse actions, etc. r fact that "employes In private industry were
Ervin expresses fear that some of this in- realizing 5 percent or more in pay hikes."
formation will be used to discriminate Lyons blasted this year's 2.9 now lags from
against some employes and favor others. 3 to 45 percent behind private industry sal-
CSC officials insist there is no ulterior mo- aries. He said federal employee "are laboring
tive in. the computerized data program, that tinder a Depression psychology, the argument
it is a large step forward in modernizing the frequently used that federal employee are
government's personnel management pro- paid less because they have steady employ-
gram. ment."
To start with, all employes in grades GS-5 "The government, for too long now has
through GS-18 will come under the pro- continued to pay government employes
gram (this represents more than 90 percent peasant wages as though they were in bond-
of all government employes) and those be- .age," he said.
low GS-ii will be included by a 10 percent Of course, Johnson will not call Congress
sampling. Into special session to enact another federal
pay raise this year.
[From the Washington Evening Star, Nov 17, Lyons is aware of this, but his statement
1966] was more, of an opening blast in the cam-
FAILURE TO LIST GIFT OF BOTTLE CAPS BRINGS paign to secure an adequate pay raise for
WARNING TO U.S. EMPLOYEE federal and postal employes next year. His
(By Joseph Young) statement was intended to dramatize the sit-
Because aCommerce Depaltment employe uation in which federal workers find them-
felt that bottle caps received from a 00111- are askeedd by the e Pr Po in e i t de to set spirals an e and x-
runity welcome wagon was too trivial a gift ample for the rest of f the t country o-
the country by not .
to list on his financial disclosure form he was seeking pay raises that would raise them to
threatened with disciplinary action. . the level of industry.
The situation is symptomatic of the Alice- The NAGS is emerging as the third major
In-Wonderland brand of madness in govern- nonpostal federal employe union, along with
ment these days regarding the requirement the American Federation of Government Em-
that employes disclose all financial worth, ployes and the National Federation of Fed-
dealings, holding and gifts, no matter how eral Employes.
trivial, as well as that of the members of While the NAGE still trails far 1.Jehind the
their immediate families. ' AFGE which has 288,000 members,. It has
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