The faking of personality tests in a selection context has been perceived as somewhat of a nuisance variable, and largely ignored, or glossed over by the academic literature. Instead of examining the phenomenon many researchers have ignored its existence, or trivialized the impact of faking on personality measurement. The present volume is a much needed, timely corrective to this attitude. In a wide range of chapters representing different philosophical and empirical approaches, the assembled authors demonstrate the courage to tackle this important and difficult topic head-on, as it deserves to be. The writers of these chapters identify two critical concerns with faking. First, if people fake their responses to personality tests, the resulting scores and the inferences drawn from them might become invalid. For example, people who fake their responses by describing themselves as diligent and prompt might earn better conscientiousness scores, and therefore be hired for jobs requiring this trait that in fact they might not perform satisfactorily. Second, the dishonesty of the faker might itself be a problem, separate from its effect on a particular score. Someone who lies on a pre-employment test might also lie about the hours he or she works, or how much cash is in the till at the end of the shift. Worse, these two problems might exacerbate each other: a dishonest applicant might get higher scores on the traits the employer desires through his or her lying, whereas the compulsively honest applicant might get low scores as an ironic penalty for being honest. Outcomes like these harm employers and applicants alike. The more one delves into the complexities of faking, as the authors of the chapters in this volume do so thoroughly and so well, the more one will recognize that this seemingly specialized topic ties directly to more general issues in psychology. One of these is test validity. The bottom-line question about any test score, faked or not, is whether it will predict the behaviors and outcomes that it is designed to predict. As Johnson and Hogan point out in their chapter, the behavior of someone faking a test is a subset of the behavior of the person in his or her entire life, and the critical research question concerns the degree to which and manner in which behavior in one domain generalizes to behavior in other domains. This observation illuminates the fact that the topic of faking is also a key part of understanding the relationship between personality and behavior. The central goal of theoretical psychology is to understand why people do the things they do. The central goal of applied psychology is to predict what someone will do in the future. Both of these goals come together in the study of applicant faking.

The faking of personality tests in a selection context has been perceived as somewhat of a nuisance variable, and largely ignored, or glossed over by the academic literature. Instead of examining the phenomenon many researchers have ignored its existence, or trivialized the impact of faking on personality measurement. The present volume is a much needed, timely corrective to this attitude. In a wide range of chapters representing different philosophical and empirical approaches, the assembled authors demonstrate the courage to tackle this important and difficult topic head-on, as it deserves to be. The writers of these chapters identify two critical concerns with faking. First, if people fake their responses to personality tests, the resulting scores and the inferences drawn from them might become invalid. For example, people who fake their responses by describing themselves as diligent and prompt might earn better conscientiousness scores, and therefore be hired for jobs requiring this trait that in fact they might not perform satisfactorily. Second, the dishonesty of the faker might itself be a problem, separate from its effect on a particular score. Someone who lies on a pre-employment test might also lie about the hours he or she works, or how much cash is in the till at the end of the shift. Worse, these two problems might exacerbate each other: a dishonest applicant might get higher scores on the traits the employer desires through his or her lying, whereas the compulsively honest applicant might get low scores as an ironic penalty for being honest. Outcomes like these harm employers and applicants alike. The more one delves into the complexities of faking, as the authors of the chapters in this volume do so thoroughly and so well, the more one will recognize that this seemingly specialized topic ties directly to more general issues in psychology. One of these is test validity. The bottom-line question about any test score, faked or not, is whether it will predict the behaviors and outcomes that it is designed to predict. As Johnson and Hogan point out in their chapter, the behavior of someone faking a test is a subset of the behavior of the person in his or her entire life, and the critical research question concerns the degree to which and manner in which behavior in one domain generalizes to behavior in other domains. This observation illuminates the fact that the topic of faking is also a key part of understanding the relationship between personality and behavior. The central goal of theoretical psychology is to understand why people do the things they do. The central goal of applied psychology is to predict what someone will do in the future. Both of these goals come together in the study of applicant faking.

Personality has emerged as a key factor when trying to understand why people think, feel, and behave the way they do at work. Recent research has linked personality to important aspects of work such as job performance, employee attitudes, leadership, teamwork, stress, and turnover. This handbook brings together into a single volume the diverse areas of work psychology where personality constructs have been applied and investigated, providing expert review and analysis based on the latest advances in the field.

Contributors consider what it means to "fake" a personality assessment, why and how people try to obtain particular scores on personality tests, and what types of tests people can successfully manipulate. The authors present and discuss the usefulness of a range of traditional and cutting-edge methods for detecting and controlling the practice of faking.

High stakes tests are the gatekeepers to many educational and professional goals. As such, the incentive to cheat is high. This Handbook is the first to offer insights from experts within the testing community, psychometricians, and policymakers to identify and develop best practice guidelines for the design of test security systems for a variety of testing genres. Until now this information was scattered and often resided inside testing companies. As a result, rather than being able to learn from each other’s experiences, each testing entity was left to re-create their own test security wheel. As a whole the book provides invaluable insight into the prevalence of cheating and “best practices” for designing security plans, training personnel, and detecting and investigating misconduct, to help develop more secure testing systems and reduce the likelihood of future security breaches. Actual case studies from a variety of settings bring to life how security systems really work. Examples from both domestic and international programs are provided. Highlights of coverage include:• Best practices for designing secure tests • Analysis of security vulnerabilities for all genres of testing • Practical cheating prevention and detection strategies • Lessons learned in actual security violations in high profile testing programs. Part I focuses on how tests are delivered for paper-and-pencil, technology-based, and classroom testing and writing assessment. Each chapter addresses the prevalence of the problem and threats to security, prevention, and detection. Part II addresses issues essential to maintaining a secure testing program such as planning and monitoring, physical security, the detection of group-based cheating, investigating misconduct, and communicating about security-related issues. Part III examines actual examples of cheating-- how the cheating was done, how it was detected, and the lessons learned. Part III provides insight into security issues within each of the Association of Test Publishers’ four divisions: certification/licensure, clinical, educational, and industrial/organizational testing. Part III’s conclusion revisits the issues addressed in the case studies and identifies common themes. Intended for organizations, professionals, educators, policy makers, researchers, and advanced students that design, develop, or use high stakes tests, this book is also ideal for graduate level courses on test development, educational measurement, or educational policy.

The twenty-sixth volume in the most prestigious series of annual volumes in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, providing authoritative and integrative reviews of the key literature in the field All chapters written by established experts and all topics carefully chosen to reflect the major concerns in both the research literature and in current practice Presents developments in such established areas as stress and well-being, consumer behavior, employee trust, deception and applicant faking, the assessment of job performance and work attitudes, and the employment interview Newer topics explored include methodological issues in the development and evaluation of multiple regression models, and the psychological impact of the physical office environment Each chapter offers a comprehensive and critical survey of the chosen topic, and each is supported by a valuable bibliography

"Widely used by practitioners, researchers, and students--and now thoroughly revised with 70% new material--this is the most authoritative, comprehensive book on malingering and related response styles. Leading experts translate state-of-the-art research into clear, usable strategies for detecting deception in a wide range of psychological and psychiatric assessment contexts, including forensic settings. The book examines dissimulation across multiple domains: mental disorders, cognitive impairments, and medical complaints. It describes and critically evaluates evidence-based applications of multiscale inventories, other psychological measures, and specialized methods. Applications are discussed for specific populations, such as sex offenders, children and adolescents, and law enforcement personnel. Key Words/Subject Areas: malingering, deception, deceptive, feigning, dissimulation, feigned cognitive impairment, feigned conditions, defensiveness, response styles, response bias, impression management, false memories, forensic psychological assessments, forensic assessments, clinical assessments, forensic mental health, forensic psychological evaluations, forensic psychologists, forensic psychiatrists, psychological testing and assessment, detection strategies, expert testimony, expert witnesses, family law, child custody disputes, child protection, child welfare Audience: Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists; other mental health practitioners involved in interviewing and assessment, including clinical psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and counselors. Also of interest to legal professionals"--