Effects of Targeted Self-Coaching on Applicant Distortion of Personality Measures

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Sliter ◽  
Neil D. Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Lie Detection ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Personality Measures ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
The Impact

The present study evaluated the impact of reading self-coaching book excerpts on success at faking a personality test. Participants (N = 207) completed an initial honest personality assessment and a subsequent assessment with faking instructions under one of the following self-coaching conditions: no coaching, chapters from a commercial book on how to fake preemployment personality scales, and personality coaching plus a chapter on avoiding lie-detection scales. Results showed that those receiving coaching materials had greater success in raising their personality scores, primarily on the traits that had been targeted in the chapters. In addition, those who read the chapter on avoiding lie-detection scales scored significantly lower on a popular impression management scale while simultaneously increasing their personality scores. Implications for the use of personality tests in personnel selection are discussed.

Test-Taking Motivation and Personality Test Validity

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. O’Neill ◽  
Richard D. Goffin ◽  
Ian R. Gellatly
Keyword(s):  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Test Validity ◽  
Personality Testing ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Field Sample ◽  
Moderation Effect ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Valid Criterion

In this study we assessed whether the predictive validity of personality scores is stronger when respondent test-taking motivation (TTM) is higher rather than lower. Results from a field sample comprising 269 employees provided evidence for this moderation effect for one trait, Steadfastness. However, for Conscientiousness, valid criterion prediction was only obtained at low levels of TTM. Thus, it appears that TTM relates to the criterion validity of personality testing differently depending on the personality trait assessed. Overall, these and additional findings regarding the nomological net of TTM suggest that it is a unique construct that may have significant implications when personality assessment is used in personnel selection.

scholarly journals Faking and the Validity of Personality Tests: An Experimental Investigation Using Modern Forced Choice Measures

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Huber ◽  
Nathan Kuncel ◽  
Katie Huber ◽  
Anthony Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Construct Validity ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Likert Scales ◽  
Experimental Control ◽  
Applicant Faking ◽  
Fake Good

Despite the established validity of personality measures for personnel selection, their susceptibility to faking has been a persistent concern. However, the lack of studies that combine generalizability with experimental control makes it difficult to determine the effects of applicant faking. This study addressed this deficit in two ways. First, we compared a subtle incentive to fake with the explicit “fake-good” instructions used in most faking experiments. Second, we compared standard Likert scales to multidimensional forced choice (MFC) scales designed to resist deception, including more and less fakable versions of the same MFC inventory. MFC scales substantially reduced motivated score elevation but also appeared to elicit selective faking on work-relevant dimensions. Despite reducing the effectiveness of impression management attempts, MFC scales did not retain more validity than Likert scales when participants faked. However, results suggested that faking artificially bolstered the criterion-related validity of Likert scales while diminishing their construct validity.

Speeding Personality Measures to Reduce Faking

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn Komar ◽  
Jennifer A. Komar ◽  
Chet Robie ◽  
Simon Taggar
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Personality Measures ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Job Applicant ◽  
Unintended Effect ◽  
High Cognitive Ability ◽  
Regulatory Model

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of imposing a time constraint on respondents completing the Big Five personality Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999) based on a self-regulatory model of response distortion. A completely crossed 2 × 2 experimental design was used in which instructions (neutral standard instruction or a job applicant instruction) and speed (with or without a time limit) were manipulated. While speeding personality tests reduced socially desirable responding, consistent with resource allocation theory (Ackerman, 1986), this effect was only seen in low cognitive ability individuals. Speeding was not perceived negatively by participants. This study is the first to find any evidence of a possible influence of speed on impression management and suggests that manipulating time limits for completing personality measures in selection is not advised at the present time as it is likely to have the unintended effect of removing applicants with high cognitive ability from the applicant pool.

Effects of Social Desirability Scores on Hiring Judgments

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil D. Christiansen ◽  
Renee F. Rozek ◽  
Gary Burns
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Managerial Position ◽  
Selection And Assessment

Practitioners (N = 160) working in the area of selection and assessment read descriptions of a managerial position and the assessment profiles of two hypothetical candidates who were finalists for the job. Embedded in the profiles were scores on a battery of cognitive and personality tests that included information on socially desirable responding such that there were no social desirability (SD) scores provided, differing SD scores, or elevated SD scores for both candidates. Ratings indicated that elevated SD scores were used as personality information to infer that candidates were less candid and sincere individuals. Candidates with elevated SD scores were judged to be less hirable, and less weight was given to the personality assessment. Despite this, even when SD scores were elevated, personality test results had more influence on hiring judgments than scores on the cognitive tests. Implications are discussed in the context of research that had failed to show SD scores are useful for facilitating hiring decisions or adjusting trait scores.

scholarly journals potentials of a dialogical reframing of personality testing in hiring

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrine Møller Solgaard ◽  
Morten Nissen
Keyword(s):  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Personality Testing ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Organizational Issues ◽  
Job Candidates ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Related Personality

Personality testing is highly disputed, yet, widely used as a personnel selection tool. In most research, it is taken for granted that personality tests are used with the purpose of achieving a more objective assessment of job candidates. However, in Danish organizations the personality test is often framed as a ‘dialogue tool’. This paper explores the potentials of a dialogical reframing of the use of personality testing in personnel selection by analyzing empirical material from an ethnographic study of the hiring processes in a Danish trade union that declaredly uses personality tests as a dialogue tool. Through an affirmative critique we identify five framings that interact during the test-based dialogue: The ‘meritocratic’, ‘disciplinary’, ‘dialogical’, ‘pastoral’, and ‘con-test’ framing. Our study suggests that being committed to a dialogical reframing nurtures the possibility of focusing on what we call the ‘con-test’: Either as exploring the meta-competences of the candidate or as co-creating embryos through joint reflections on organizational issues. We argue that the long-lasting debates in the field of selection-related personality testing should be much more interested in the question of how personality tests in hiring are used, rather than whether or not they should be used.

scholarly journals Effects of Faking on the Predictive Validity of a Quasi-Ipsative Forced-Choice Personality Inventory: Implications for Sustainable Personnel Selection

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4398
Author(s):  
Alexandra Martínez ◽  
Silvia Moscoso ◽  
Mario Lado
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
The Impact

Faking behavior is one of the main problems of personality measures. For this reason, determining the potential effects of faking on personality assessment procedures is relevant. The aim of this study has been to examine the impact of faking, induced in a laboratory setting, on the predictive validity of a quasi-ipsative forced-choice (FC) inventory based on the five-factor model. It also examined whether the magnitude of the predictive validity varied depending on the type of criteria analyzed (self-reported performance ratings and grade point average). The participants were 939 students from the University of Santiago de Compostela. As expected, the results showed that: (1) conscientiousness is the best predictor of performance even under faking response conditions; (2) conscientiousness predicts performance better when it is assessed using rating scales; and (3) reliability and validity were attenuated under faking conditions. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the research and practice of personnel selection.

Handwriting Analysis and Personality Assessment

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Greasley
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Handwriting Analysis ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Personnel Recruitment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Better Than

It has been estimated that graphology is used by over 80% of European companies as part of their personnel recruitment process. And yet, after over three decades of research into the validity of graphology as a means of assessing personality, we are left with a legacy of equivocal results. For every experiment that has provided evidence to show that graphologists are able to identify personality traits from features of handwriting, there are just as many to show that, under rigorously controlled conditions, graphologists perform no better than chance expectations. In light of this confusion, this paper takes a different approach to the subject by focusing on the rationale and modus operandi of graphology. When we take a closer look at the academic literature, we note that there is no discussion of the actual rules by which graphologists make their assessments of personality from handwriting samples. Examination of these rules reveals a practice founded upon analogy, symbolism, and metaphor in the absence of empirical studies that have established the associations between particular features of handwriting and personality traits proposed by graphologists. These rules guide both popular graphology and that practiced by professional graphologists in personnel selection.

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