ABSTRACT
Assessments of honesty and dependability are potentially critical in the selection and advancement of police officers. As a result, techniques for assessing honesty and detecting deception are of particular interest to police departments. Psychologists and other behavioral scientists have studied techniques for detecting deception, ranging from physiologically based assessments (e.g., polygraphs, voice stress analysis devices) to techniques that focus on behaviors thought to be linked to deception (e.g., nervous smiles, stuttering) (Ekman & O'Sullivan, 1991; Lykken, 1981; Murphy, 1993; Saxe, 1991); Chapter 7 of this volume considers assessments of deception in offenders’ testimony. The present chapter deals with a number of methods that are used to assess overall honesty or trustworthiness, usually in the context of preemployment screening. In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to the use of so-called integrity tests to predict and identify dishonesty (Murphy, 1993; O'Bannon, Goldinger, & Appleby, 1989; Sackett, Burris, & Callahan, 1989).
