Conditional Reasoning Test and personality questionnaire: a comparison of susceptibility to response distortion

Tomšić, Andrea. (2012). Conditional Reasoning Test and personality questionnaire: a comparison of susceptibility to response distortion. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Galić, Zvonimir].

PDF (Croatian) - Registered users only Download (214kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Response distortion on personality questionnaires is an issue often addressed in personality assessment for various practical purposes (e.g. selection). Numerous methods of prevention have been developed, but none of them proved to be completely successful. Lawrence James and his colleagues developed a promising approach for measuring personality based on implicit measures, namely the conditional reasoning approach. A test that arises from this approach, Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression (CRT-A), should be resistant to response distortion due to its indirect nature. The aim of this study was to examine the given hypothesis by comparing CRT-A with an integrity test based on self-reports which is proved to be susceptible to response distortion. By manipulating instruction we created three conditions: honest condition, response distortion in positive direction (“fake good”) and in negative direction (“fake bad”). Our results show that response distortion on CRT-A is possible, especially in the “fake bad” condition. In comparison with the integrity test, distortion on CRT-A was smaller. Put differently, the susceptibility of CRT-A to response distortion is not as high as of the integrity test based on self-reports.

Actions (login required)

View Item