Developing a faking-resistant measure of corporate psychopathy for use in employment selection : the CRT-WP

Abstract

The issue with using self-report measures of psychopathy in selection is that they are highly susceptible to faking. Conditional Reasoning Tests (CRTs) are a rarely used method for measuring implicit personality that could be a solution to this problem. The Conditional Reasoning Test for Workplace Psychopathy (CRT-WP) is conceptualized in this paper. The current research includes four studies which develop and validate the CRT-WP. Sixty items were generated for six justification mechanisms deemed inherent to psychopathic thinking. Study 1 used SMEs to refine the item list, Study 2 conducted a preliminary EFA, and Studies 3 and 4 validated the remaining items in MTurk and student samples. Overall, there is support the CRT-WP as a reliable measure with sufficient construct validity. However, more evidence is needed for predictive validity. It appears that the CRT-WP could overcome the issues with assessing psychopathy in selection. Application, design, and potential issues are discussed.