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The British Study of Values: II. The effects of “test‐faking‘ and of maturation on a psychology degree course
Author(s) -
Gibson H. B.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1979.tb00301.x
Subject(s) - test (biology) , psychology , course (navigation) , degree (music) , social psychology , paleontology , physics , astronomy , acoustics , biology
An experiment is reported involving students who went through an honours psychology degree course. After admission they were given the British version of the Study of Values test, and immediately afterwards asked to repeat the test “faking good” in a manner which they would imagine would make them appear as ideal candidates for the psychology course. Three years later, all the 62 students who had completed the course were again asked to complete the test in the standard manner. Certain significant differences were noted between the original genuine test profiles and the profiles obtained by “faking good”. In general, the final profiles obtained at the end of the course were found to be more similar to the original genuine profiles (although certain significant changes had taken place) than to the profiles obtained by “faking good”. These data provide some test‐retest data about the test after a lapse of 3 years, and highlighted the uselessness of the test as a screening device where test‐faking might be an operative factor.