When helping behaviors are viewed as self-presentation: Effects of observers’ presence and their gender on motive inference

MMPI-2 in Child Custody Litigation

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000192 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 110-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Paolo Roma ◽

Federica Ricci ◽

Georgios D. Kotzalidis ◽

Luigi Abbate ◽

Anna Lubrano Lavadera ◽

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Keyword(s):

Child Custody ◽

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory ◽

Personality Inventory ◽

Custody Evaluations ◽

Self Presentation ◽

Female Population ◽

Clinical Scales ◽

Forensic Assessments ◽

Child Custody Evaluations ◽

Italian Women

In recent years, several studies have addressed the issue of positive self-presentation bias in assessing parents involved in postdivorce child custody litigations. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is widely used in forensic assessments and is able to evaluate positive self-presentation through its Superlative Self-Presentation S scale. We investigated the existence of a gender effect on positive self-presentation bias in an Italian sample of parents involved in court evaluation. Participants were 391 divorced parents who completed the full 567-item Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 during child custody evaluations ordered by several Italian courts between 2006 and 2010. Our analysis considered the S scale along with the basic clinical scales. North-American studies had shown no gender differences in child custody litigations. Differently, our results showed a significantly higher tendency toward “faking-good” profiles on the MMPI-2 among Italian women as compared to men and as compared to the normative Italian female population. Cultural and social factors could account for these differences.

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Applicants’ Self-Presentational Behavior

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000046 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 77-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Anne Jansen ◽

Cornelius J. König ◽

Eveline H. Stadelmann ◽

Martin Kleinmann

Keyword(s):

Personnel Selection ◽

Randomized Response Technique ◽

Randomized Response ◽

Self Presentation ◽

Actual Use

This study contributes to the literature on self-presentation by comparing recruiters’ expectations about applicants’ self-presentational behaviors in personnel selection settings to applicants’ actual use of these behaviors. Recruiters (N = 51) rated the perceived appropriateness of 24 self-presentational behaviors. In addition, the prevalence of these behaviors was separately assessed in two subsamples of applicants (N1 = 416 and N2 = 88) with the randomized response technique. In line with the script concept, the results revealed that recruiters similarly evaluated the appropriateness of specific self-presentational behaviors and that applicants’ general use of these behaviors corresponded to recruiters’ shared expectations. The findings indicate that applicants who use strategic self-presentational behaviors may just be trying to fulfill situational requirements.

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