BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN OVERT AND PERSONALITY-BASED INTEGRITY TESTS

Overt and personality-based integrity tests are used for the same purposes, but the relationship between the two kinds of measures is unclear. Moreover, although the construct validity of personality-based integrity measures is well understood, the psychological meaning of overt integrity measures is unclear. A sample of applicants ( N = 2,168) for driver, warehouse, and clerical jobs completed an overt integrity test (Reid Report), a personality-based integrity test (Employee Reliability Index) and a measure of normal personality (Hogan Personality Inventory). A principal components analysis of the intercorrelations between the overt and the personality-based integrity item responses revealed four themes: (a) punitive attitudes, (b) admissions of illegal drug use, (c) reliability, and (d) theft admissions. A model testing for a general conscientiousness factor provided a good fit for the overt and personality-based integrity test variables, although item overlap between the two test types was minimal. Finally, the punitive attitudes and theft admissions components of the Reid item pool are most closely related to the Big Five personality factors of conscientiousness and emotional stability; the Reid component of illegal drug use was unrelated to personality measures.