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Controlling social desirability may attenuate faking effects: a study with aggression measures
Cristina Anguiano-Carrasco1, Andreu Vigil-Colet, Pere Joan Ferrando
1Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación y Psicología, Universidad Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Spain. cristina.anguiano@urv.cat
Psicothema
|May 1, 2013
Summary
A new procedure effectively corrects personality test faking, especially for aggression measures. Individual differences significantly impact faking effects, though physical aggression scales remain largely unaffected.
Area of Science:
- Psychological assessment
- Personality psychology
- Social psychology
Background:
- Limited research on faking effects in personality measures, particularly for socially undesirable traits like aggression.
- Previous studies have not extensively explored the impact of individual differences on faking in aggression scales.
Purpose of the Study:
- To apply a General Factorial-Analytic procedure to aggression scales to correct for faking.
- To investigate the influence of individual differences on score changes resulting from faking aggression measures.
Main Methods:
- 371 undergraduate students participated.
- A subset of participants (n=215) completed aggression questionnaires under neutral and faking-motivating conditions.
- A control group (n=156) completed questionnaires twice under neutral conditions.
Main Results:
- General Factorial-Analytic procedure demonstrated effectiveness in correcting for faking effects across aggression scales.
- Individual differences were found to significantly influence score changes due to faking in most scales.
- Physical aggression scales showed minimal impact from faking and individual differences.
Conclusions:
- The General Factorial-Analytic procedure successfully mitigates faking effects in personality assessments.
- Individual differences are a crucial factor in understanding score alterations caused by faking, with notable exceptions in highly undesirable traits.
- Physical aggression measures appear more robust against intentional response distortion.
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