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Personality Retest Effects: Guilt as a Mechanism for Managing Response Distortion

Personality Retest Effects: Guilt as a Mechanism for Managing Response Distortion . Jill E. Ellingson, Eric D. Heggestad, and Erin E. Coyne October 13 – 14, 2006 ETS Technical Advisory Group Meeting. Current Retesting Policy.

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Personality Retest Effects: Guilt as a Mechanism for Managing Response Distortion

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  1. Personality Retest Effects: Guilt as a Mechanism for Managing Response Distortion Jill E. Ellingson, Eric D. Heggestad, and Erin E. Coyne October 13 – 14, 2006 ETS Technical Advisory Group Meeting

  2. Current Retesting Policy • Applicants allowed to voluntarily retake assessment after period of time if displeased with outcome • Applicant elects to retake the assessment • Common in organizations which use assessment tools for hiring • Most often used in conjunction with cognitively-loaded assessments

  3. Personality Assessment Retesting • Organization directs certain applicants whose responses are likely distorted to retake the personality assessment • Responses deemed distorted on basis of embedded intentional distortion scale • Flags extreme response profiles • Applicants informed that responses were flagged as suspect • Hiring decisions made using retested scores

  4. Key Questions • Does retesting flagged applicants lower previously inflated personality scale scores? • What psychological mechanism operates within applicants to help explain why they would adjust their responses?

  5. Scale Score Changes • Flagged applicants have positively biased score profiles • Retest effect evident in degree to which second assessment scores are lower • Preliminary research suggests that scores may be lowered up to 0.7 standard deviation units (Ellingson & Heggestad, 2003) Hypothesis 1: Retesting flagged individuals will result in decreased personality scale scores in the second assessment relative to the first assessment.

  6. Role of Guilt: Appraisal Theory Event Evaluation Factors Relevance? Congruence? Associated values? Accountability? Coping potential? Emotion Behavior

  7. Role of Guilt: Applicant Appraisal • Evaluation Factors • Personally relevant • Incongruent • Violates personal standards • Personally accountable • Coping potential? Told to retest Guilt Behavior Hypothesis 2: Retesting flagged individuals will result in increased feelings of guilt in the second assessment relative to the first assessment.

  8. Role of Guilt: Applicant Appraisal • Evaluation Factors • Personally relevant • Incongruent • Violates personal standards • Personally accountable • Make reparation Told to retest Guilt Respond honestly Hypothesis 3: The level of guilt reported by flagged individuals in the second assessment will moderate the degree to which personality scale scores change.

  9. Sample and Measures • 288 undergraduate students • Measures: • NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) • Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding-Impression Management scale (BIDR-IM) • Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 Guilt scale (PFQ2-G) • Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded (PANAS-X) • Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA3)

  10. Procedure • All participants: • Completed the TOSCA3 • Completed NEO-FFI and BIDR-IM • under motivating instructions • Completed the PFQ2-G and PANAS-X • regarding feelings had while taking • the personality measure Sorted participants into 3 groups based on BIDR-IM score Time 1 • Low Control Group • Low BIDR-IM score • High Control Group • High BIDR-IM score • Flagged Retest Group • High BIDR-IM score Time 2 Told responses were suspect and unusable Asked to retest Retested for neutral reason

  11. EffectSizes Positive values indicate that Time 1 score was larger than Time 2 score.

  12. Repeated-measures MANCOVA:Personality Scales Within-subjects factor (Time): Time 1, Time 2 Between-subjects factor (Condition): Low Control, High Control, Flagged Retest Covariate: Trait Guilt

  13. Repeated-measures ANCOVA:Personality Scales Within-subjects factor (Time): Time 1, Time 2 Between-subjects factor (Condition): Low Control, High Control, Flagged Retest Covariate: Trait Guilt *p < .05

  14. Repeated-measures ANCOVA:Agreeableness Interaction

  15. Repeated-measures ANCOVA: State Guilt Within-subjects factor (Time): Time 1, Time 2 Between-subjects factor (Condition): Low Control, High Control, Flagged Retest Covariate: Trait Guilt

  16. Moderated Regressions:Understanding Score Change * p < .05 † p < .10

  17. Moderated Regressions:Conscientiousness Interaction

  18. Conclusion • Retesting flagged applicants will result in a set of personality scale scores that are less positively inflated • The appraisal profile of guilt helps explain this effect • Flagged applicants who feel guilty as a result of being retested decrease their scores in response.

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