The faking of personality questionnaire results: Who's kidding whom?

Abstract

Explores the faking-good of personality questionnaire results in occupational settings. Identifies three specific lines of research into faking-good: first, whether it is possible for candidates to fake-good personality questionnaire results; second, whether faking-good adversely affects the criterion validity of personality questionnaire results; third, whether candidates actually engage in faking-good behaviour. Notes, in relation to this third line of enquiry, the lack of information about the views of candidates and potential users of personality questionnaires towards the faking-good of personality questionnaire results. Proceeds to explore the views of 190 people employed in personnel departments in the North-West of England towards various issues associated with the faking-good of personality questionnaire results. These issues include: the ease with which personality questionnaire results can be faked; the ease with which faking-good can be detected; the extent to which candidates actually fake-good; the ethics of faking-good responding. The implications of the study focus on matters such as the face validity of personality questionnaires, the training of test users and the future development of non-transparent fake-good scales.