TITLE

Situational judgment and emotional intelligence tests: Constructs and faking

AUTHOR

Grubb, W. Lee, III

SCHOOL

VIRGINA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY

DEGREE

Ph.D.

DATE

2003

PAGES

132

ADVISOR

McDaniel, Michael A.

ABSTRACT

This dissertation investigated the fakability of the EQ-i:S, an emotional intelligence test developed by Bar-On (2002) and the fakability of the Work Problems Survey, a situational judgment test developed by Smith and McDaniel (1998). A sample of 235 undergraduate students from a southeastern university completed a battery of selection and assessment measures in both an honest and faking good condition. The battery of instruments included the EQ-i:S, the Work Problems Survey, Goldberg's 50 item personality inventory and the Wonderlic Personnel Test (the Wonderlic Personnel Test was completed in the honest condition only). All non-cognitive tests were shown to be fakable. The fakability of each measure seemed to be, in part, explained through the cognitive difficulty of the items. More transparent and simplistic items were shown to be more fakable. Of the different non-cognitive measures examined, the EQ-i:S was shown to be the most fakable. Additional analyses were conducted to uncover any predictive correlates of the ability to fake the different measures. General mental ability was the most consistent item that significantly influenced one's ability to fake the non-cognitive measures.