NCJ Number
190147
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 25 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 235-256
Date Published
June 2001
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study was a preliminary attempt to assess the effects of engaging in positive impression management on the results of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), a self-report test that has shown considerable promise as a screening measure for psychopathy.
Abstract
A current limitation of the PPI is that no data exist regarding the impact of response sets such as positive impression management. Although the PPI contains a validity scale ("Unlikely Virtues") designed to identify response biases such as "faking good," its utility has not yet been assessed. In the current study a repeated-measures analogue design was used in which 186 respondents completed the PPI both under standard conditions and with specific instructions to create a favorable impression of themselves. Under the "fake good" condition, participants were able to appear significantly less psychopathic, with those who obtained higher scores in the standard instruction condition showing the largest decreases in their PPI scores. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses indicated that although the "Unlikely Virtues" scale significantly differentiated between "fake good" and honest protocols (area under the curve equals .73), a considerable number of misclassifications occurred. These results suggested that caution was warranted when relying on the Unlikely Virtues validity scale to identify respondents who were engaging in positive impression management. 3 tables, 2 figures, and 62 references