The Impact of Coaching on Faking-Good/Under-Reporting on the PAI

Abstract

This study examined the effect of coaching upon participants' ability to ‘fake-good’ on the PAI. Ninety-eight adults were recruited from a local government school. A between-groups design was used to compare the performance of three groups under the following conditions: (1) Standard, (2) Fake-Good No-Coaching and (3) Fake-Good Coaching. It was predicted that the results of the Fake-Good Coaching group would be indistinguishable from the Standard group and that the Fake-Good No-Coaching group results would be significantly elevated. Results supported the first hypothesis. The findings are discussed in terms of the sample, the nature of the task and the level of coaching.

Keywords:

• faking good
• PAI
• positive impression management
• under-reporting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.