Experimental faking in self-reported psychopathology: unidimensional or multidimensional?

This study examined the dimensionality of experimental faking on self-report inventories of psychopathology. For a sample of 260 undergraduates, the latent structure of response style scales indicated that intentional deception was not unidimensional. In particular, distinct dimensions emerged for positive and negative faking. These findings suggest that D. L. Paulhus’ (1984) two-component model of socially desirable responding is incomplete for the description of conscious test dissimulation. Additional experimental and naturalistic research is recommended for establishing the full nature of intentional distortion in test responding.