Are you faking?

A common problem with psychological assessments is response sets and dissimulation. Some people unconsciously respond in a way that does not conform to their true behavior, beliefs, feelings or thoughts while others purposely misrepresent themselves. When clients’ true characteristics are distorted it interferes with the validity of the interpretation of the test scores and thus the diagnosis.

A famous case that speculates the “faking bad” of an individual is the one of Guy Turcotte. He killed his children and allegedly tried to kill himself as well but failed. He is a doctor thus it has been argued that he should have been able to successfully suicide himself. He admitted his actions but disputed that he had psychological problems. During his trial he was not found criminally responsible for the death of his children. Thus he was sent to a psychiatric hospital. This case is very controversial because many people argue that he should have been sent to prison. In general, individuals who commit crimes more specifically kill people have psychological problems because ‘normal’ people do not do it. Turcotte could not have been that ill because he was able to practice cardiology. That is he could not had have a disorder, which excuses the murders he committed. In a way the legal system is at fault because his perceived psychological problems discard his actions. However there is also an issue with the assessments. This is not the only case where people are known or thought to have cheated a test. This is an example that demonstrates how psychological assessments need revision or more validity scales in order to detect such misrepresentation. It seems that too many people have succeeded in presenting themselves differently in order to gain or avoid something. In the situation of Guy Turcotte he was able to avoid the consequences of his actions; prison.

Some tests use validity scales in order to detect people who are not answering accurately because several individuals either “fake good or fake bad”.

Today’s technology enables every citizen to be aware of divers illnesses and thus is able to exaggerate or fake symptoms. Unfortunately it is rare that professionals use such specialized tests to enable the detection of distorted self-presentation. Psychological constructs have evolved over the years however more focus should be given on validity scales. These should be incorporated in a broader sample of tests in order to avoid situations where people take advantage of circumstances as presumably Guy Turcotte did.