Impression Management in Police Officer Candidacy on the MMPI-2

It is well documented that candidates in employment situations attempt to present overly positive pictures of themselves that may be inaccurate. Police officer candidacy situations are not an exception. They are more critical to the public welfare, however, because of the sensitive nature of police officers as an interface between government and the community. For this reason, the study of impression management using devices that are employed in police selection is of great importance. This study used 36 college students to whom the MMPI-2 was administered, first under standard conditions (control condition) in which the students responded as they ordinarily would and second, under a set of special instructions (experimental condition) which instructed them to respond as if they were police officer candidates. The two profiles were compared. As hypothesized, the Lie (L) and Correction (K) scales were elevated in the experimental condition. An inspection of the clinical scales revealed that all tended to be lower in the experimental condition than in the control condition, with the exception of Masculinity-Femininity (Mf), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), Paranoia (Pa), and Hypomania (Ma). Implications of these findings for officer candidate selection are discussed. © 2009 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.