Keynote Lecture: Faking: From a laboratory ghost to a tamable real-world menace
Abstract:
Recent definitions describe faking as an interaction between person and situation resulting in disrupted item responses aimed at a personal profit for the testee. Within the keynote a research program on faking spanning the last decade will be summarized. The first stage of the program consisted of finding ways to model variance due to faking in personality questionnaires. Results based on experimental and quasi-experimental data show that faking exists, impacts construct validity and reliability, and can be modeled. In a second research stage, this modeling approach was used to explore the nature of faking. Results show the necessity to distinguish between faking good and faking bad and underscore the role of dark personality traits. Finally, in a third research stage, recently proposed fake-proof measures based on Thurstonian Item Response theory are tested. The talk will conclude with recommendations for search and practice.