Neil D. Christiansen

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Central Michigan University

Two field studies were conducted to examine how applicant faking impacts the normally linear construct relationships of personality tests using segmented regression and by partitioning samples to evaluate effects on validity across different ranges of test scores. Study 1 investigated validity decay across score ranges of applicants to a state poli...

Forced-choice (FC) personality assessments have shown potential in mitigating the effects of faking. Yet despite increased attention and usage, there exist gaps in understanding the psychometric properties of FC assessments, and particularly when compared to traditional single-stimulus (SS) measures. The present study conducted a series of meta-ana...

Studies of personality at work have made significant contributions to theory and applied practice in work and organizational settings. This review article proposes that there are also reciprocal influences between core personality science and research on personality in work and organizations, each drawing on insights from the other. Following this...

Applicant faking poses serious threats to achieving personality-based fit, negatively affecting both the worker and the organization. In articulating this “faking-is-bad” (FIB) position, Tett and Simonet (2021) identify Marcus’ (2009) self-presentation theory (SPT) as representative of the contrarian “faking-is-good” camp by its advancement of self...

The use of personality measures to predict work-related outcomes has been of great interest over the past several decades. The present study used machine learning (ML) to examine the optimal level in the personality hierarchy to use in developing predictive algorithms. This issue was examined in a sample of incumbent police officers (N = 1,043) who...

The present study is an updated survey examining individual assessor beliefs and practices related to faking in the individual assessment context. The responses from a mix of quantitative and qualitative survey questions were compared across individual assessors from the original 2005 sample (n = 77) and an updated 2020 sample (n = 78). Results sug...

After nearly two decades of awareness on the research–practice gap in human resource management, this study updates and expands on the seminal findings of Rynes et al. (2002) specific to personnel selection. In a sample of 453 human resource (HR) practitioners in the US and Canada, we found that the research–practice gap persists. Notably, compared...

This study examined differences in the psychometric scale properties of scores from a personality inventory as a function of cognitive ability when administered in low-stakes (incumbent employees; N = 1108) vs. high-stakes (job applicants; N = 79,339) testing contexts. Based on the idea that applicant response distortion increases trait score means...

In the lack of fit model and role congruity theory it is suggested that mismatch between female candidates and agentic, male-typed jobs is responsible for discrimination when women apply for leadership positions. In 2 studies we examined the effects of job–applicant mismatch and evaluator sexism on candidate evaluations. In Study 1 (participant eva...

This study examined the linear and nonlinear relationships between applicant impression management (IM) behaviors during the interview and subsequent interview performance. We proposed that honest IM would have a nonlinear effect on interview performance, whereas deceptive IM would demonstrate a linear effect. Hypotheses were examined using a sampl...

Despite being an effective predictor of job performance, empirically keyed biodata assessments have been criticized as black box empiricism unlikely to generalize to new contexts. This paper introduces a model that challenges this perspective, explicating how biodata content, job demands, and criterion variables collectively influence the construct...

This study examined criterion-related validity for job-related composites of forced-choice personality scores against job performance using both Thurstonian item response theory (TIRT) and classical test theory (CTT) scoring methods. Correlations were computed across 11 different samples that differed in job or role within a job. A meta-analysis of...

Tilting at windmills and improving personality assessment practices - Volume 12 Issue 2 - Neil D. Christiansen, Peter A. Fisher, Chet Robie, Stuart Quirk

This research examined differences in interviewers’ ability to identify effective interview questions and to accurately rate interviewees’ responses. Given the theoretical association between these interview activities and the construct of social intelligence (SI), a performance‐based measure of SI was developed utilizing situational judgment test...

Evidence suggests that individuals can and do present themselves positively on personality assessments when motivated to do so. This faking can reduce the validity of personality assessments and is of special concern in high stakes situations where critical decisions are being made at least partially on personality scores (e.g., personnel selection...

Globalization has led to increased migration and labor mobility over the past several decades and immigrants generally seek jobs in their new countries. Tests of general mental ability (GMA) are common in personnel selection systems throughout the world. Unfortunately, GMA test scores often display differences between majority groups and ethnic sub...

This study examined the negative effect of likely applicant distortion on mean scores and validity of personality measures. The personality test scores and performance ratings of applicants were directly compared to those of incumbents with the same occupation in four different samples. The results showed that applicant mean scores were higher and...

Rejecting situational specificity (SS) in meta-analysis requires assuming that residual variance in observed correlations is due to uncorrected artifacts (e.g., calculation errors). To test that assumption, 741 aggregations from 24 meta-analytic articles representing seven industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology domains (e.g., cognitive abil...

The covariance index (CVI) is a response validity scale created with the purpose of detecting intentional distortion in self-report measures. Based on evidence that that strong response sets increase the covariance between responses, a method was developed to identify increased covariance at the individual level. Two studies were conducted to evalu...

The present study examined the negative effect of applicant distortion on various psychometric properties of personality measures. The personality test scores and performance ratings of applicants were directly compared to those of incumbents with the same occupation in four different samples. Analyses focused on changes in mean shifts, scale covar...

Despite an increased use in item response theory (IRT)-based personality testing there is little research documenting whether trait estimations are actually improved over those derived via simply summated scoring according to classical test theory (CTT). In this study personality scale validity was compared using a variety of estimation methods (CT...

Personality traits are often theorized to affect team performance by predisposing members to perform individual-level behaviors. Yet, member personality traits may also affect team performance by creating contextual influences on member behaviors. As such, the purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of team personality composition on...

Personality has been largely neglected in research investing person-job fit, particularly in terms of appraisals of distress and subsequent strain outcomes. In this study, the effects of congruence between personality and task-demands on job satisfaction was examined based on the idea that employees become distressed when asked to perform activitie...

Purpose This study examined the extent that personality information in resumes impacts hiring judgments through applicant’s resumes. Study 1 examined lay theories regarding relationships between resume cues and the applicant’s personality and hireability. Study 2 examined how the applicant’s personality impacted hiring judgments through resumes....

In selection contexts, applicants' ability to identify criteria (ATIC) refers to individual differences in the accuracy of perceptions with regard to what is required to be successful in evaluative situations. Despite promising findings regarding this construct, the cross-situational consistency necessary to infer that ATIC is a stable characterist...

This research examines the relationship between the construct and criterion-related validity of assessment centers (ACs) based on how convergence of dimension ratings across AC exercises affects their ability to predict managerial performance. According to traditional multitrait-multimethod perspective, a high degree of convergence represents more...

Personality has emerged as a key factor when trying to understand why people think, feel, and behave the way they do at work. Recent research has linked personality to important aspects of work such as job performance, employee attitudes, leadership, teamwork, stress, and turnover. This handbook brings together into a single volume the diverse area...

Participants (N = 200) completed self-report and implicit association (IAT) measures of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Peer trait ratings and supervisor ratings of job performance were also collected. Results suggested low convergence between IAT and self-report trait measures. Cognitive ability and self-positive bias bot...

No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers. Robert Heinlein Personality surrounds us at work. Of course, personality is inherently psychological and therefore cannot be directly observed, but the effects are everywhere. A morning training session goes smoothly, but in the afternoon, the negative disposition of one individual sour...

When assertiveness is required for successful job performance, how can we tell which of the two job candidates is likely to be more assertive? If we were to survey the current literature in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, we would conclude that we should find a personality inventory that measures assertiveness and administers it to each...

We assessed the combined effects of cognitive ability, opportunity to fake, and trait job-relevance on faking self-report emotional intelligence and personality tests by having 150 undergraduates complete such tests honestly and then so as to appear ideal for one of three jobs: nurse practitioner, marketing manager, and computer programmer. Faking,...

The present study evaluated the impact of reading self-coaching book excerpts on success at faking a personality test. Participants (N = 207) completed an initial honest personality assessment and a subsequent assessment with faking instructions under one of the following self-coaching conditions: no coaching, chapters from a commercial book on how...

Based on a social cognitive approach to personality, the role of domain‐specific efficacy beliefs were examined in two studies. Study 1 developed a measure of expectations about success in 10 different domains of common work activities with domain‐specific expectancy ratings obtained for 157 individuals along with self‐ and peer ratings of personal...

This article reviews different methods of measuring the extent that faking has distorted responses to a personality test. Based on the idea that faking causes shifts in the means and construct relationships, a three-factor framework is proposed for classifying such measures based on the data required for computation and the effect of faking that th...

This study examined whether inclusion of narrow personality trait scales improved prediction of job performance enough to overcome increased capitalization on chance characteristics of the sample. Data were obtained from 262 midlevel managers who had completed a personality inventory and had been assessed using multisource performance ratings. Thre...

This study examined the structure of attitudes toward the political party an individual primarily identifies with and attitudes toward the other party with an emphasis on differentiating between the cognitive and affective components. Participants responded to a telephone survey that included measures of party identification, partisan attitudes, po...

Two studies examined aspects of the validity of self-report and performance-based measures of emotional intelligence (EI) relevant to their use in personnel selection. In Study 1, structural equation modeling indicated that a two-factor model with separate factors for the two types of EI measures fit better than a one-factor solution. The performan...

This study investigated the processes whereby hindrance and challenge stressors may affect work behavior. Three mechanisms were examined to explain the differential effects these stressors have demonstrated: job satisfaction, strains, and work self-efficacy. A model is proposed in which both types of stressors will result in increases in strains, b...

Practitioners (N = 160) working in the area of selection and assessment read descriptions of a managerial position and the assessment profiles of two hypothetical candidates who were finalists for the job. Embedded in the profiles were scores on a battery of cognitive and personality tests that included information on socially desirable responding...

NEIL D. CHRISTIANSENCentral Michigan UniversityROBERT P. TETTUniversity of TulsaHoughandOswald(2008)provideacurrentperspective on personality testing, conclud-ing that personality–job performance rela-tionships are complex but that both theconstructs and the measures of personalitycurrentlyusedhavethepotentialtoadvanceorganizational research and pr...

This study examined the effects of providing applicants with pre-test information and preparation (PTIP) materials on pass rates and reactions to the selection process. Applicants for chemical process operator positions that had (n=38) and had not (n=57) received PTIP materials before completing a test battery were surveyed after they...

Despite widespread and growing acceptance that published personality tests are valid predictors of job performance, Morgeson et al. (2007) propose they be abandoned in personnel selection because average validity estimates are low. Our review of the literature shows that Morgeson et al.'s skepticism is unfounded. Meta-analyses have demonstrated tha...

The effects of correcting a personality measure for faking were evaluated within an organizational context. Two possible repercussions of score correction were studied using the 16PF personality inventory: the effect on criterion-related validity and the effect on individual hiring decisions (i.e., which applicants would or would not be hired). Res...

We developed a model to explain how an individual's attitude toward the group targeted by affirmative action impacts support for the program. In this model, attitude toward the targeted group influences the extent to which an individual perceives discrimination to be responsible for workforce disparities. Perceived discrimination affects fairness j...

This study used trait activation theory as a theoretical framework to conduct a large-scale test of the interactionist explanation of the convergent and discriminant validity findings obtained in assessment centers. Trait activation theory specifies the conditions in which cross-situationally consistent and inconsistent candidate performances are l...

The effects of motivated distortion on forced-choice (FC) and normative inventories were examined in three studies. Study 1 examined the effects of distortion on the con-struct validity of the two item formats in terms of convergent and discriminant valid-ity. The results showed that both types of measures were susceptible to motivated dis-tortion,...

This Study examined individual differences in the accuracy of personality judgments. Participants (N = 122) reviewed videotaped segments of 3 individuals responding to employment interview questions, judged the personality of the interviewees, and rated acquaintances who later completed self-report personality inventories. Participants also complet...

We reviewed a number of personality tests that are commonly used for personnel selection and found that some of the more popular tests provide a “correction” for faking. Additionally, a survey of researchers' preferences regarding correcting personality test scores for faking was conducted. The respondents, who were experienced in using personality...

A model of the psychological experience of employee ownership in work groups was developed to investigate antecedents (participation in a 401 (k) program and a climate of self-determination) and consequences (employee attitudes and financial performance) of psychological ownership. Based on data from a large retail organization, results showed that...

As a means of examining the incremental validity of a normal personality measure in the prediction of selected Axis I and II diagnoses, 1,342 inpatient substance abusers completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2 (MMPI-2) and were assessed with structured clinical interviews to...

Research on the antecedents and consequences of expatriate adjustment was reviewed using meta-analytic methods. The antecedents and outcomes of three facets of adjustment were examined. Self-efficacy, frequency of interaction with host nationals, and family support consistently predicted all three types of adjustment. In addition, better interperso...

This study considered the relationship between personality traits and success in different roles involved in New Business Development (NBD). NBD is a process in which analysts generate ideas for new products or services, evaluate their feasibility, and develop implementation plans for those that are most promising. A personality inventory was creat...

Although it is well established that applying disability labels to children results in lower expectations from teachers and peers, less is known about the specific effects of different labels. In this study, 409 participants from different backgrounds (high school students, college students, and teachers) read a vignette of a child described withou...

Every year, a growing number of students leave their home environments and relocate to study at universities abroad. Relocation, however, can be a challenging and stressful experience. This longitudinal study surveyed 294 international and domestic student sojourners to examine and compare their adjustment and distress or strain responses during th...

Assessment centers have often been criticized for lacking evidence supporting the construct validity of dimension ratings. This study examines whether the poor convergence of assessment center ratings is a result of correlating ratings from exercises that differ in the extent that behavior relevant to personality traits can be observed. Using data...

d high simply because they possess favorable traits. As a compromise, social desirability or response validity scales have frequently been employed in field situations in an attempt to identify individuals who are likely to have distorted their responses to personality inventories (Meehl & Hathaway, 1946; Rosenzweig, 1934; Windor, O'Dell, & Karson,...

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between work team effectiveness and two distinct aspects of the personality composition of teams: (a) the average level of a given trait within a team, referred to as team personality elevation (TPE); and (b) the variability or differences in personality traits found within a team, or team pe...

Based on a framework suggested by information integration theory, this study examined how prejudice affects the use of stereotypes when forming social judgments. Participants reviewed applications for a minority scholarship and rated their liking for each applicant. Embedded in the applications were trait descriptions that varied in the amount, ste...

This study investigated a person–climate fit model in order to explain the effect of organizational politics on work attitudes. A unique index of compatibility was developed based on the congruence between preferences for political influence processes and those processes perceived to be prevalent in the employment context. A survey of 138 non acade...

We examined whether ideological differences influenced perceptions of the underlying causes of public aid applicants’ predicaments, and whether in turn ideology-patterned attributions accounted for how resource allocators prioritized need- and efficiency-related goals in allocating aid. To examine the need-efficiency trade-off, participants (N=112)...

Do gender and race-ethnicity moderate people's reactions to perceptions that their organization supports affirmative action/equal opportunity (AA/EO)? This study compared relationships between perceptions of support for AA/EO, distributive and procedural justice, career development opportunities, and work attitudes in 4 groups of federal employees:...

Do gender and race–ethnicity moderate people's reactions to perceptions that their organization supports affirmative action/equal opportunity (AA/EO)? This study compared relationships between perceptions of support for AA/EO, distributive and procedural justice, career development opportunities, and work attitudes in 4 groups of federal employees:...

The usefulness of examining the structural validity of scores on multidimensional measures using nested hierarchical model comparisons was evaluated in two studies using the Social Problem-Solving Inventory (SPSI). In Study 1, the authors systematically explored the factor structure of the measure using hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis, co...

A meta-analytic review of 42 empirical studies was made on the correlates of expatriates' adjustment to general living conditions, interactions with host nationals and work assignments. Respondents to these studies estimated to be 5,210 were expatriates of different nationalities and assigned to various countries. The majority of them were male man...

Typescript. Thesis (M.A.)--Psychology, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1993. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-35). Photocopy.