Faking and personality assessment in personnel selection: Advancing models of faking.

Personality testing is a particularly valuable preemployment assessment tool when one matches personality traits to job requirements. The authors explain that, unlike most other common personnel selection methods, the unique value of personality assessment in personnel selection stems from its tendency to predict the choice to perform, or “will-do” aspects of job performance. The effect of faking on the value of personality testing is discussed, and the authors suggest that personality testing’s contribution to personnel selection could be leveraged if more were known about the psychological process underlying applicant faking behaviour. To this end, the authors present an improved general model of the applicant faking process as well as a new “faking decision tree.” (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewer consistency in the use of empathic models in personnel selection.

Personnel selection interviewers predicted the responses of applicants to 2 paper and pencil tests. Comparisons were made between these predictions and the responses of applicants (accuracy score), predictions and the responses of interviewers (similarity score). (These scores were referred to collectively as empathy scores.) Statistical analysis of empathy scores and their components indicated marked inter-interviewer inconsistency, which was interpreted to mean that interviewers tend to make errors by resorting to empathy as a basis of decision making. Explicit, actuarial bases of decision making in interviewing are advocated. Results of a follow-up study supported this interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial bias in the use of work samples for personnel selection.

Examined the role of evaluation specificity and task relevance in explaining racial bias in the use of work samples. 56 White maintenance mechanics evaluated a videotaped performance of a Black job applicant and a White job applicant performing a relevant task (laying out, drilling, and tapping) and an irrelevant task (indexing drill bits). The applicants were evaluated by using a highly specific behavioral recording form, a global rating scale, or both. Race-linked bias was found only when Ss were asked to make global evaluations after observing an applicant's performance on a task representing irrelevant job behavior. Race-linked bias was not found when Ss used the behavioral recording form or in global evaluations made following the behavioral recordings. Race-linked bias was not evident when evaluations were based on observations of relevant job behavior. It is concluded that by using careful work sample development procedures and by assisting Ss in focusing on and recording relevant behavior, the potential for bias in the use of work samples appears small. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orientations toward personnel selection: Differential reliance on appearance and personality.

In two studies we examined the hypothesis that the psychological construct of self-monitoring would identify people who adopt distinctly different strategies in personnel selection. In both experiments, undergraduates examined information about the physical appearance and personalities of two applicants for a specific job and then decided which applicant should receive a job offer. In Study 1, information about the applicants' physical attractiveness and job-appropriate dispositions was varied. In Study 2, job appropriateness of the applicants' physical appearance and of their personalities were both varied. In each study, high self-monitoring individuals placed greater weight on information about physical appearance than did low self-monitoring individuals. By contrast, low self-monitoring individuals put greater weight on information about personal dispositions than did high self-monitoring individuals. We discuss the implications for understanding personnel selection as well as for decision making in interpersonal contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of social desirability in personality testing for personnel selection: The red herring.

Response bias continues to be the most frequently cited criticism of personality testing for personnel selection. The authors meta-analyzed the social desirability literature, examining whether social desirability functions as a predictor for a variety of criteria, as a suppressor, or as a mediator. Social desirability scales were found not to predict school success, task performance, counterproductive behaviors, and job performance. Correlations with the Big Five personality dimensions, cognitive ability, and years of education are presented along with empirical evidence that (a) social desirability is not as pervasive a problem as has been anticipated by industrial-organizational psychologists, (b) social desirability is in fact related to real individual differences in emotional stability and conscientiousness, and (c) social desirability does not function as a predictor, as a practically useful suppressor, or as a mediator variable for the criterion of job performance. Removing the effects of social desirability from the Big Five dimensions of personality leaves the criterion-related validity of personality constructs for predicting job performance intact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in personnel selection.

Industrial/organizational psychologists have made many contributions to the development of modern selection procedures. Such procedures are used by organizations in making decisions about individual employees (e.g., hiring and promoting). This article briefly reviews the methods used in selection (i.e., psychological tests, personal histories, projective techniques, and interviews); summarizes the professional and legal issues that their use has raised; and discusses current trends and future developments in selection. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-assessment in personnel selection.

Examined the usefulness of self-assessments of skills, abilities, and knowledge for personnel selection in 2 studies. In Study 1, 73 clerical state government employees rated ther current abilities in several areas and took a speeded test of clerical accuracy and 2 parallel forms of an unspeeded test of several clerical abilities. Supervisors provided concurrent performance ratings on as many as 16 dimensions. Significant positive correlations between self-assessments and written test scores were found for spelling, grammar, word meaning, reading, and arithmetic. Self-assessments of spelling, reading, grammar, speed and accuracy of proofreading, comparing names and numbers, and concentration of accuracy of details correlated significantly with supervisory ratings on corresponding performance dimensions. In study 2, 569 applicants for clerical jobs rated their typing speed and were later given a standardized typing test. Typing test scores correlated .62 or better with self-assessments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude toward invasion of privacy in the personnel selection process and job applicant demographic and personality correlates.

Explored the attitudes of subgroups of the job applicant population toward invasion of privacy in the selection process. Attitude toward privacy invasion and personality correlates was also examined. Ss consisted of 1,392 job applicants. Attitudes were measured by an invasion of privacy questionnaire, a 66-item instrument factor-analyzed into 5 component factors. Although many of the correlations between demographic and invasion of privacy factors were significant, they were not large enough to account for much meaningful variance. Personality correlates suggested a set of variables which might merit further investigation. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision processes in personnel selection.

Reviews some of the research on decision making in personnel selection, with special attention to the greater weighting of unfavorable information in selection decisions and to the nature of causal attributions in the personnel interview. A 2-stage selection model is proposed in which decision makers first make attributions about the applicant and then categorize the applicant either as matching or not matching the dimensions of the category "good worker" as determined by deviance from the prototype "ideal worker." The attribution process ends when sufficient dimensions have been evaluated to provide a match or mismatch, and the length of the process should vary as a function of such factors as the number of dimensions, their clarity and specificity, and the accountability of the decision maker. It is suggested that job applicants perform a parallel decision-making process to match their needs and the perceived ability of the organization to meet them. (French abstract) (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of personality measures in cross-cultural research: A test of three personality scales across two countries.

This study explored the measurement equivalence of 3 commonly used psychological measures across samples of U.S. and Indian male and female respondents. Multiple groups structural equations modeling indicated that locus of control was measured equivalently across U.S. and Indian male and female groups, whereas measurement equivalence of a self-esteem scale and a higher order need strength scale was observed across U.S. men, U.S. women, and Indian men. Baseline models for self-esteem and for higher order need strength failed to fit in the Indian female sample, suggesting basic differences in how respondents from this group conceptualized scale items. The results underscore the potential importance of culture as a factor that may moderate the types of inferences that can be made from test scores in cross-cultural research applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work sampling for personnel selection.

Developed a work sample checklist from supervisors' ratings of important tasks and behaviors expected of maintenance mechanics. The test was given to 34 employees by an outside e, and checklist evaluations were compared with (a) supervisors' evaluation of each s on 3 factors; and (b) ss' responses on the test of mechanical comprehension, the wonderlic personnel test, and the short employment tests. Results indicate that performance on the work sample was significantly related to supervisory evaluations of job success, but that none of the validity coefficients for the paper-and-pencil tests was significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faking and selection: Considering the use of personality from select-in and select-out perspectives.

The effects of faking on criterion-related validity and the quality of selection decisions are examined in the present study by combining the control of an experiment with the realism of an applicant setting. Participants completed an achievement motivation measure in either a control group or an incentive group and then completed a performance task. With respect to validity, greater prediction error was found in the incentive condition among those with scores at the high end of the predictor distribution. When selection ratios were small, those in the incentive condition were more likely to be selected and had lower mean performance than those in the control group. Implications for using personality assessments from select-in and select-out strategies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Car-driving consistency and measures of personality.

Three groups of Ss—10 skilled police driving instructors, 10 skilled car club drivers, and 6 drivers of lesser skill—were studied to determine the relationship of driving consistency to neuroticism and to introversion-extroversion. The driving consistency measures (based on vehicle acceleration and deceleration) were found to be negatively related to the two personality measures for the skilled police drivers and the lesser-skilled drivers, but not for the skilled car club drivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The stability of Guilford-Zimmerman personality measures.

In comparing performance on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey of the same group of females over a period of time, it was found that the inventory measures "relatively persistent attributes of the persons tested." The N was 96 the 1st time and 49 the 2nd time. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament measures in industrial selection.

The scores on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey of 924 industrial Ss (338 college graduates, 128 with some college, 335 HS graduates, 105 grade school graduates), 94 college graduate vocational guidance clients, 56 HS graduate guidance clients, and 109 college students were compared to test the hypotheses that (1) Ss in the industrial situation will score higher than either guidance clients or students, and (2) the higher the educational level of Ss in the industrial situation, the greater will the faking be. Inter-group differences on most of the scales significant at the .01 level or better verified the hypotheses. "These extreme results apply mostly to… a college graduate population… wherein the need for… temperament evaluation is greatest." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implications of personnel psychology for intern selection.

Examines innovations in selection and performance appraisal described in the personnel psychology literature and details how these innovations might be incorporated into the internship experience. Most of the current research literature on the professional psychology internship is anecdotal in nature. In addition, the limited empirical research on intern selection criteria reveals no basis on which to judge the validity of current performance predictors. Research in the areas of personnel psychology that apply to intern selection and evaluation is reviewed: the use of cognitive ability and academic record data to predict performance, letters of recommendation as a selection component, and the personal interview as a primary aspect of the selection process. Current practices in intern selection in each of these areas are not well supported by empirical research. Several promising innovations from personnel psychology, particularly behavioral interviewing, are described and evaluated. It is concluded that behavior-based interviews developed from a job analysis possess considerable promise to improve intern selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality measurement, faking, and detection: An assessment method for use in personnel selection.

Usual methods for personality assessment have been found unsuitable for use in personnel selection contexts. An alternative method of item construction and of scoring key and detection scale development for personality inventories is proposed. Results of a double cross-validation study based on 456 male Ss using 3 newly developed forced-choice inventories indicate that (a) over 90% of the test performance can be correctly identified as self-report or faked, (b) mean score profiles under the 2 conditions for the 5 personality variables under study are virtually congruent and variances under the faking condition are uniformly smaller, (c) validities against peer-nomination criteria are in the moderate range for all 5 variables and (d) Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 reliabilities between .83 and .92 were obtained. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bales' interaction process analysis of personnel selection interviews.

What are the sources of interview unreliability? This is the 2nd of a series of 3 studies of the interview. 276 interviews were used. "Samples of interview conversation (personnel selection interviews) were analyzed according to Bales' interaction process analysis. Scores obtained were correlated with decisions made by interviewers about whether applicants were recommended for acceptance or rejection… . specific interaction score variance accounts for interviewer error to a significant degree." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)