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Virginia Tech

Nonvolitional Faking on a Personality Measure: Testing the Influence of Unconscious Processes

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Personality measures were predicted to be susceptible to response distortion above and beyond volitional strategies of impression management. A 2 (Instruction Set) x 2 (Personality Feedback) x 2 (Mortality Salience) factorial design addressed social desirability biases in responding to personality measures. There were significant changes in all measures due to volitional (Fake Good) strategies. Thoughts of death lead to decreased distortion, but only on the measures sensitive to social desirability bias. Mortality Salience interacted with personality feedback, such that test responses were distorted in the opposite direction of the feedback, supporting Optimal Distinctiveness Theory. A significant interaction between Mortality Salience and Instruction Set suggests further attention be given to unconscious distortion in personality scores and that Terror Management Theory incorporate further research on individual differences.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Psychology
Department dc:contributor.department
Psychology
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2001

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Lemmond, Gregory G.
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Hauenstein, Neil M. A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Donovan, John J.
  • Axsom, Danny K.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-08222001-123051
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/34692

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Lemmond, Gregory G.. Nonvolitional Faking on a Personality Measure: Testing the Influence of Unconscious Processes. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34692