Innovative Item Response Process and Bayesian Faking Detection Methods: More Questions Than Answers

This chapter presents a framework for considering faking from an item response perspective. This view argues that responding to personality items should be viewed from the perspective of the test taker and that it is fundamentally a social interaction not unlike an interview or conversation. Test takers are attempting to manage a unidirectional social interaction where test takers are attempting to appear impressive while remaining credible much like they would in face to face conversation. This chapter also suggests that the long and short term goals of the test taker affect how they manage this communication. The chapter then uses this framework to discuss new methods for detection and control of deliberate faking behavior. This chapter reviews unlikely virtue scales, social desirability scales, over-claiming or bogus items, idiosyncratic response detection, and Bayesian truth serum approaches.