Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

2-2005

Abstract

There is increasing interest in using situational judgment tests (SJTs) to supplement traditional student admission procedures. An important unexplored issue is whether students can intentionally distort or fake their responses on SJTs. This study examined the fakability of an SJT of college students' performance. Two hundred ninety-three psychology students completed a cognitive test, a personality measure, and an SJT. Only for the SJT, the students were assigned to either an honest or a fake condition. The scores of students in the fake condition were significantly higher than those of students in the honest condition (d = .89). Furthermore, faking had a negative effect on the criterion-related validity (there was a significant drop from r = .33 to r = .09) and the incremental validity of the SJT over cognitive ability and personality. These results are discussed in terms of the use of SJTs in high-stakes testing programs.

Keywords

Situational judgment, faking, response distortion, academic success, validity

Discipline

Higher Education | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Student Counseling and Personnel Services

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Educational and Psychological Measurement

Volume

65

Issue

1

First Page

70

Last Page

89

ISSN

0013-1644

Identifier

10.1177/0013164404268672

Publisher

SAGE Publications (UK and US)

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164404268672

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