Employment-Related Motivational Distortion: Its Nature, Measurement, and Reduction:

The behavioral variable employment-related motivational distortion (EMD) was defined and measured. In Study 1, a sample of 250 undergraduates completed the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), Form 434, on two separate occasions in which they responded (a) honestly and (b) as if applying for a job they valued. Four different change measures indexed participants’ response changes between the two conditions on a CPI-based scale measuring counter productivity (CPI-Cp). A composite of these four measures provided an EMD criterion, which enabled the development, in Study 2, of a 56-item CPI-based EMD predictor scale. On the basis of eight samples comprising a total Nof 2,074, internal consistency and test-retest reliability estimates for the CPI-EMD scale ranged between .72 and .86. Correlations with NEO PI-R domain and facet scales provided construct information about EMD. In Study 3, CPI-Cp scale scores adjusted for EMD manifested (a) reliability ranging from .71 to .87 over eight samples and (b) somewh...