Personality Assessment: When do People Fake?

Questions about faking draw attention because their answers bear relevance to the consideration of the criterion-validity of personality assessments. Reading a book chapter on the subject helped me understand the importance of understanding the contexts and personality factors that contribute to the likelihood that an individual will fake on a personality assessment.

There is a lack of consensus in faking literature on the question of whether faking on personality assessments in high-stake situations occurs at meaningful levels. Jill Ellingson suggests that if we reframe the question to “when do people fake?” we may find a more nuanced answer. Moreover, this answer may also help reconcile perspectives on faking.

Faking is conceptualized as a behavior rather than a trait; a behavior that may be engaged in the pursuit of one’s interests. One’s motivation to carry out this behavior depends upon both individual and situational factors. Ellingson argues that individuals with higher levels of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence are more motivated to engage in faking behavior.

Expectancy and Instrumentality Judgement
People who feel more capable of faking are more likely to do so. For example, self-monitoring individuals who are also knowledgeable about the constructs being assessed are more likely to fake. Moreover, one’s personal assessment of whether one meets the expectations of the company or program receiving the results of the test also plays a role in one’s likelihood to fake. In addition, if one’s believes that faking is commonplace then one is more likely to fake. In contrast, if one scores high on integrity, then one is less likely to fake. Additionally, the presence of warnings about the detection of faking or lying on an assessment has also been shown to prevent faking.

Valence
Valence refers to the perceived value of the opportunity in question. Ellingson suggests that one should consider three constructs to determine valance of an opportunity. Namely, job desirability, marketability, and job search self-efficacy. The desirability of the job to the individual can be affected by such things as desperation (independent of specific job characteristics). More specifically, if an individual is desperate to find a job, that individual is more likely to consider the opportunity more valuable. Marketability refers to an individual’s personal perception regarding his/her value to the prospective employer. Marketable individuals consider any given opportunity as less valuable because these individuals usually have other equally competitive options. Job search self-efficacy refers to one’s confidence that one’s efforts in job searching will lead to success. Individuals high in job search self-efficacy are usually confident that they will be able to find other opportunities and are more likely to opt-out of job selection processes that they deem unfair and hence, less likely to fake.

Ellingson concludes that people fake only when they need to fake; a result that is based on both personal and situational factors. Reading this book chapter really helped me gain perspective on some important discussions in faking literature. I think that faking literature still has a long way to go in terms of redirecting questions and resolving disparities. However, I think that Ellingson presents some interesting constructs that can be useful in future pursuits and in the development of the literature on the subject.

Reference
People Fake Only When They Need to Fake
Chapter:
(p.19) 2 People Fake Only When They Need to Fake
Source:
New Perspectives on Faking in Personality Assessment
Author(s):
Jill E. Ellingson
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387476.003.0014