Graduation Year

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Walter C. Borman

Keywords

Applicant, Faking, Job Knowledge, Personality, Response Distortion

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the personality trait elevation between honest and applicant contexts that has been widely seen throughout the personality and selection research is merely universal, blatant trait elevation, or whether something else is underlying this faking behavior. By obtaining both honest and applicant context personality responses in which respondents were provided with focal job knowledge, this study determined that while there is near-universal trait elevation across seven personality traits, there is, in fact, some trait differentiation between jobs. As such, this study provided some evidence of knowledgeable faking, defined as distortion of personality test responses based on knowledge of the job being applied to, within applicant contexts.

Share

COinS