When finding a dating partner, you absolutely owe yourself, for safety 
       purposes, a reading of the below paragraphs that describe and
       offer a safety tool that might save you money, your honor and morale, and
    perhaps even your life.

Please note that this web page has purposely
been made very simple (no photos, advertisements,
complex extra files) in order that printed
(i.e., hard copy) pages can be swiftly and                                   If  you look for dates online, this is important!
inexpensively printed as, in the event that the
reader is interested in the subject content, he/she
will definitely want a hard copy of this page.

     In today's world, formal use of the established communication media find potential 'dating' partners must be regarded as being socially acceptable, due to the fact that many millions are doing so and do nothing to hide this fact. Some 25 or more years ago, anyone who made use of "Men looking for Women" or "Women looking for Men" advertisements, in newspapers, magazines, and the like, was viewed as being very common, foolish, and even to a minor degree, possibly possessing some criminality. Quite clearly, much of that prior unfavorable regard is no longer fitting what has been taking place on the Internet in that past few years, at least not to the severe levels that formally were in place. It is not unusual at all to hear a very distinguished middle-aged lady, of apparent means, eagerly relating her experiences with communicating and eventual meeting of some similar aged male by use of the so-called Internet dating approach. Young adults have seemingly picked up on this type of dating introductions as a very nature part of the Internet, which they have now grown up with.

     Based upon what I (i.e., Dr. LeRoy A. Stone, author of this presentation, and whose Web Site and Email address are, respectively: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/home.html and lastone2@earthlink.net) have learned in the past couple of years regarding this matter of Internet dating, from friends and even relatives, there still are strong reasons why one should be exceptionally careful when so engaging in this type of search for possible romantic partnership establishment. All kinds and types of deception seem to be almost the rule and not the exception in this kind of dating arrangement making. Self descriptions typically seem to be exaggerations of just about every characteristic and demographic variable possible. The outcomes of simply describing oneself as being younger than actual, being of less weight, taller, more hair, better looking, being better employed, etc. etc. are seldom more serious than is immediate disappointment and rejection. All that has been lost generally is only a little time, perhaps some money, but also some personal confidence.

     When one performs a web search, using any popular search engine (i.e., prefer Google, however sometime make use of Yahoo, MSN as well as others) on a combination of these three terms, 'online dating dangers,' a great number of very interesting sources (i.e., URLs) of information, some of which would seem to be downright scary, can be studied. Hundreds (in fact, thousands) of URLs are indicated by such a search. Inspection of those found URLs that can be found on the first two search-engine-produced pages reveals that most can be considered to be believable as many are directly associated with well known newspapers, news services, or trusted foundations and organizations. Most of these found URLs very loudly and clearly describe many of serious dangers associated with online dating attempts. It is suggested that the reader attempt to make a search engine search of the same three word/terms that are mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph.

     Because I (i.e., Dr. Stone) am a pretty old man, up until the past year my interests never even came close to, what are for others, are these now very frequently encountered matters of computerized dating/matching. That is, until someone connected matters matters to a psychological testing instrument that I constructed several years ago for an entirely different problem or situation. This someone was a quite intelligent, middle-aged woman who, because of her involvement and interest in security clearance matters, had been already aware of the existence of my test, the Personnel Security Standards Psychological Questionnaire (PSSPQ. It so happened that she had also previously attempted to establish a computerized match with a hoped for interested middle-aged male. Unfortunately, her middle-aged male turned out to be an opportunist who seemingly was most interested in the lady's financial status and holdings. Shortly after their early 'dating' had started, she fortunately spotted some danger signals and soon after found these signals to be valid indicators of what this well appearing, nice older man was truly interested in.

      As suggested above, the lady, discussed in the prior paragraph, had been, prior to her unfortunate romantic encounter, only slightly familiar with the PSSPQ. To be precise, she had once, several months prior, had heard a work colleague mention it, but only to a rather minimal degree. This lady went to her computer and Googled "PSSPQ." Her computer then displayed over a hundred different URLs, all seemingly descriptive of the PSSPQ. She picked the first displayed Googled presentation; not surprisingly, it was the 'home' URL for the PSSPQ (whose Internet address is: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html). After carefully reading the descriptions of the PSSPQ, and also the couple dozen different linked URLs (which are really PSSPQ web site subsections), she then contacted myself, the psychologist who developed and, for the past few years, has marketed this prediction instrument over the Internet. She rather fully described how her prior attempt to meet an appropriate male, over the Internet, had met with a bit of a disaster and fortunately for her, only a great disappointment with the outcome. She wondered whether some testing instrument, such as the PSSPQ, might prove to be some kind of screening test that could be used to also evaluate persons being 'introduced' via online dating/matching arrangements. Her initial logic went something like this:"if the PSSPQ can accurately (with a better than 95% prediction accuracy rate) predict whether an individual will or will not be eventually successful in being governmentally granted high-level security clearance status, all just based upon responses to 72 multiple-choice testing items, might it not also be able to identify (i.e., predict) just who possesses high personal integrity vs. being a lying phony who might even pose a bona fide dangerous risk."

      Her inquiry intrigued me as I rather immediately envisioned that the PSSPQ might hold some value in the type of situation described as associated with online dating introductions. The most important component part of the PSSPQ in such a situation most likely would be the instrument's LIE Scale, the subtlest that tests a respondent as to whether he/she is lying or being deceptive regarding his/her providing self descriptive information. In fact, in an online dating introduction situation, such information could be considered to be the very foundation of any decision, on the part of the one of the participants to go any further or to cut any further communication off at this very point. The lady who contacted me regarding all of this, was also familiar with the fact that the PSSPQ, not only measures receptiveness proneness but also a number of other dimensions, some of which seemingly might be exceptionally interesting to anyone who is in the early phases of communication with a potential online dating candidate. These other dimensions are: Loyalty to the USA, Close Relatives and Associates, Sexual Considerations, Cohabitation History, Undesirable Character Traits, Financial Irresponsibility, Alcohol Abuse, Illegal Drugs & Drug Abuse, Emotional & Mental Disorders, Record of Law Violations, and National Security Violations. If one were possibly interested in another individual, with some type of eventual romantic focus, actually all of these ten personal background dimensions could be of great interest, some more than others. One must remember that the PSSPQ was expressly designed and constructed to predict success or failure to be eventually granted high-level security clearance status. However, think about it, if the US Government, based upon a complete security clearance suitability processing (which for Top Secret-Special Compartmented Information level clearances; for which the PSSPQ was designed to predict), makes the decision to grant such a clearance, does not this suggest that the focused individual is of good character and possesses high personal integrity. It is not at all unusual for the Government to spend anywhere from $25,000 to 50,000 or more to complete the investigation processing for such security clearances. Such processing typically involves extensive field based, face-to-face background investigations conducted throughout the world, extensive interviews with prior employers and fellow employees as well as with former and present neighbors, full National Agency checks, polygraphing (multiple times are not unusual). In 2006, the average time to complete such a clearance processing investigation was well over one year. It is the decision result of such processing that the PSSPQ predicts, with a better than 95% accuracy rate, based upon response to only 72 multiple choice items.  It is worth while to point out that the PSSPQ is the ONLY test or instrument that has ever been developed that accurately predicts the granting/denial of a high-level security clearance many month (or even years) before the final governmental decision has ever been made.  In other words, it really is the 'only show in town' with respect to this particular prediction focus (see: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/onlyonepsspq.html.

      What particular information is developed from a set of PSSPQ item responses. For one thing, a score, which is technically called a discriminate function score is developed and this single score, when compared to a range of scores, is what is used to predict success/failure to be eventually granted high-level security clearance granting. However, a great deal of other psychometric information is also developed from a 'taking' of the PSSPQ. What are known as standard score (i.e., having a average score of 50 with a standard deviation of 10) are computed to each of the 10 dimensions that are listed in the prior paragraph. For example, with the Alcohol Abuse dimension, a score is calculated, if it is 50 it implies that the test taker uses/abuses alcohol at about the level that is considered to be average with individuals who are in the general population who might be evaluated for security clearance status. If a score of 60 is seen it implies that the test taker is at about the 67 percentile point with respect to alcohol abuse; higher scores on these dimension imply pathology or 'trouble.' A score of 70 implies that the test taker is at about the 95 percentile point with respect to alcohol abuse. Scores below 50 can be interpreted in a similar but inverse fashion. The ten dimensions' standard scores do indeed provide a great deal of background information regarding the targeted individual.

      But wait, is is not possible that a PSSPQ test taker can attempt to be deceptive regarding his providing self made description of his background and history? Of course, and the PSSPQ has built into it probably the best ever built psychometric LIE Scale. How can it be said that this particular constructed lie scale is the best. The absolutely most employed personality test used by clinical psychologists is the well known MMPI-Revised test which was first constructed over 60 years ago but has been revised and re-normed multiple times since. The MMPI's Lie Scale has been used hundreds of millions of times since it was originally developed and can be regarded as the 'gold standard' for such tests or scales that have been devised over the years to detect presence and degree of positive direction receptiveness of test takers. I am very happy to report that the PSSPQ's LIE Scale is far superior to the MMPI's Lie Scale and for many years there has been published proof that this is so. The most major problem with the MMPI Lie Scale is that the more intelligent one is, the more the true purpose and design of the scale can be 'seen' and evaded. In other words, bright people can 'see through' the logic of the scale and not get caught by it as being liars. The MMPI Lie Scale works quite well when test takers are not overly bright, however it does a lesser quality job the brighter is the test tester. To be quite honest, it is quite fair to state that with bright test takers, it does a truly 'lousy' job, so much so that it should be considered to represent an invalid testing scale with persons of at least average intellect and most certainly with highly intelligent test takers.  In contrast, published research (i.e., as far back as almost 20 years ago) has reported that there tends to exist exist an approximate zero level correlation between measured intelligence and scores from the PSSPQ LIE Scale; this particular research finding was published in: Stone, L. A. (1987); the reference for this well established research finding can be seen by 'clicking' on HERE. This research found that a correlation coefficient of -0.41 was found between measured intelligence and MMPI Lie Scale scores; this coefficient was statistically significant at or beyond the 0.0001 level which can be interpreted as being most unlikely to have occurred simply due to chance. In contrast, correlation coefficients computed between measured intelligence and PSSPQ LIE Scale scores almost uniformly are found to be very close to zero and consistently can be interpreted as most likely being due to chance alone (i.e., p > .05).

      What it means is the the PSSPQ can be considered to be a most appropriate psychological test for personal integrity and honesty that already has proven extremely useful to evaluate individuals utilizing computerized on-line dating arrangements. It seemed quite logical to, at the beginning, try out the PSSPQ for this purpose. It was at this point that the lady, mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this written presentation, was most helpful. In her next attempt to use one of the the most widely used online dating services, she communicated to several of the potential dating candidates that were made obvious to her that before she would go any further in communicating to each of them that they would have to respond to a 72-item psychological test/questionnaire and to send their test responses to the publisher of the test for scoring. She was very explicit in telling these several men that see would not be allowed to view their responses to any of the test items, but rather the test published would send her the scores of the test that they took. She explained that the test was an integrity or honesty type test and that a couple of the major online dating services actually require their 'customers' to respond to a similar purpose type test and that at least one major dating service also conducts some type of background check for criminal history of those who are applying to be 'matched' or otherwise 'introduced' to an opposite gender partner. The lady indicated that, for her own personal safety issues, she would only continue to communicate with a potential partner who cooperated in her request for his testing. Actually, her request that her potential 'date' respond to a highly personal psychological questionnaire is not at all unusual in this kind of matter. Three of the larger online dating sites (e.g., eHarmony.com, True.com, Match.com and Yahoo Personals) have available their own constructed personal information tests/questionnaires, however only eHarmony.com apparently makes taking their test/questionnaire required and not optional. From information provided by others, these three online dating sites' tests/questionnaire require approximately an hour to respond to, which suggests that these testing instruments must each be at least a couple hundred items in length. Only one matching/dating service provides some type of background search associated with the applicants who wish to make use of their service  -  this particular service is True.com. A spokesman for True has publicly announced that if the site identifies members with a criminal record it will notify authorities; also they claim to also search public marriage records. These bits of information can be found in a very recent article (December 2006, pages 43-45) that appeared in Consumer Reports that was entitled "CR's Guide to Online Dating Sites: Romance."

      The CR article on online dating service sites described, in some detail, that fact that although these services sites claim that they do not sell or otherwise share any personal information, that has been given to them by members, to anyone other than members of the services. In other words, they tend to claim that they do not provide derived personal information to other companies. CR, however, seems to somewhat take issue with such claims as the dating services sites apparently may share highly personal type information with a "site's partners or advertisers."  CR notes that Match.com, for instance, may share your personal information with other companies whose names are displayed on the site, 'Cobranded companies.' "  Match.com's privacy policy says it "may use your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies." The site apparently states that "it has no control over third party policies."  CR reports that some of the dating services sites tell of being checked out by some independent watchdog groups, such as TRUSTe, VeriSign, and the Better Business Bureau Online. Such is noted by CR as that "Such third-party affiliation isn't a guarantee of protection but it's better than nothing."   CR also reports that some online dating services sites display no affiliation with any of these perhaps not overly strong watchdog groups. What all of this means is that any highly personal information you may give to any online dating services site, based upon response to any personal history test/questionnaire, or any other data collection instrument, may not be held in confidence at all  -  such information may even be shared with some commercially connected company or organization!!!!!!!!!!!!

     Now that you are aware of some of the dangers and weaknesses associated with online dating services utilization, let us examine whether use of the PSSPQ actually may provide some significant degree of safety for persons wanting to use such dating services. Although there are many hundreds (maybe even more) online dating services sites in existence throughout the world, in the English-speaking world, really there are only a dozen or more major sites that have captured most of the utilizers of these kinds of services. Some provide services free of charge, but the more major ones do levy monthly charges that typically range from about $25 a month (e.g., Yahoo Personals) to about $60 a month (e.g., eHarmony). The about to be seen descriptions of attempts to employ the PSSPQ in online dating endeavors will all make use of only a couple of the more popular (who assess monthly charges) dating services sites.

      The lady (first mentioned in the fifth paragraph of this presentation) agreed to assist in trying out the PSSPQ in her planned new attempts using the online dating paradigm once again. She became a new member of a online dating site that offers use of compatibility testing as an option and whose basic fee is $25 a month. She completed this site's compatibility test and browsed a large number of that site's male members, some had also completed the compatibility testing and some had not. We suggested that she select 10 of the profiled members who appeared to come reasonably close to a kind of male companion that she thought she might be interested in. To make a long story, this 49 year old divorced female (who actually could be considered to be exceptionally physically attractive, for her age, and who was financially comfortable) subsequently received interested response from eight of the earlier selected 10. In her first communication to each of them, she indicated that any further communication with her would only take place if the communicated to male would 'take' a personality and personality history type psychological test that was rather short and involved multiple-choice items. She told them that she would not be allowed to see their responses to any individual items but rather would only be given some scale scores. She suggested that were they to agree to be tested, they would be wise to be truthful as the test was capable of identifying persons who attempted to deceive and lie about themselves. She indicated that this testing would be at her expense and that such would cost them nothing. She indicated that she really, at this point would not have to know their full name but would have to have a mailing address where the testing materials could be sent. After they had completed the testing, they were instructed that a stamped/addressed envelope would have been provided so that they could mail all the testing materials to the testing company that had designed the test and who would score their testing responses. These men were each rather strongly informed that the testing company would not reveal to her any of their responses to any individual items but rather would only communicate standard scores on the several sub-scales that comprise the test to her. Beyond this, complete confidentiality of their testing responses/scores would be respected and that no information that could be personally connected to themselves would be ever released. In fact, in most individual cases, the testing company really would possess only a test taker's first name or some other similar very limited identifier.

      Of the eight still possibly involved men, seven communicated that they agreed to comply with the testing conditions that she had laid out. Testing materials were then immediately sent out to each of them. Interestingly enough, within a week's time, all had responded to the test and had mailed all the testing materials to Dr. Stone, who was supplying the tests, scoring and results information to the lady who originally initiated this trial run. The man who did not return any of the testing materials, never did return any of these materials. Each PSSPQ set of 72 item responses were scored for the 11 personnel security standards scales as well as for the test's LIE Scale. Although developed for a rather different purpose, the PSSPQ's discriminant function prediction equation for predicting possible granting/denial of high-level security clearance status was also computed for each of the involved eight men. Of these now seven men, five produced results that suggested that they were not truthful in their responding to the PSSPQ questioning. Three did show LIE Scale T-scores of beyond 65 and two with a LIE Scale T-scores of well over 75. These last two men could quite clearly regarded as blatant liars with respect to their descriptions of themselves on the PSSPQ. The three, with slightly lower LIE Scale scores could be perhaps thought of as being sufficient non-truth-tellers, to such a degree, that they best should be deselected from any future dating potential. The two remaining men, we were pleased to see, obtained LIE Scale T-scores, well within the quite low and average ranges, that were established when this scale was developed and standardized, which used applicants for high-level clearance status's. One of these two, a male aged 44, obtained a LIE Scale T-score of 55; all of his other PSSPQ scales were also well within average ranges. The other of these two, a man who was 59 obtained a quite low LIE Scale score of only 42; such a scoring is not often seen and it is believed to represent a clearly overly honest person, at least in terms of self description. This type individual seems not to be shy about admitting all types of 'warts' and/or personal weaknesses. Interesting enough, his PSSPQ scales scores, dealing with Alcohol Abuse, as well as Emotional & Mental Disorders were a bit elevated, however his admission of these kinds of problems also indicated that with him such had taken place a number of years ago and had not been problem matters, at least not within the past 10 years or so. Interestingly enough, a PSSPQ scoring configuration, such as this, is sometimes seen, especially with persons who have been successful members of Alcoholic Anonymous; this scoring pattern, especially the quite low LIE Scale scoring, is also not at all atypical with the more religious members of the Mormon religion. It was extremely interesting, especially to Dr. Stone, that these last two men, who could be deemed to be acceptable as possible dating candidates, were also found to be persons who would be predicted by their PSSPQ scoring information to be likely to be successful in being granted high-level security clearances, were they to be ever evaluated for such a status.

      The PSSPQ test taking results were presented to the involved lady, by suggesting that the last two discussed males, could, based upon their being regarded as being relatively honest in their self description and thus could be 'recommended.' Those five men, who obtained overly high LIE Scale scores were described to the lady as being sufficiently non truthful, especially about themselves, to be so questionable and as best not recommended for possible dating material. This type of testing arrangement was extended to five other individuals who were interested in attempting to utilize online dating sites. Three males (aged 25, 31, and 44) and two females (aged 26 and 21) were encouraged to, as did the previously described lady, to also select about 10 possible possible dating candidates who were members of the dating services, each had subscribed too. Only one actually did select, the other four only selected five to eight possible dating partner candidates. Without going into precise description of what happened, it can be said that what transpired was not at all dissimilar from what took place following the 'original' lady's experiences when she asked her ten candidates to 'take' the PSSPQ. What happened is that some immediately 'dropped out,' one after being mailed the PSSPQ materials [later he mailed them in but had not responded to the PSSPQ items], the majority who 'took' the PSSPQ obtained high to very high LIE Scale scores, and a small number produced PSSPQ scoring configurations that eventually resulted in their being regarded favorably as possible future dating candidates. Again, it was found that those persons who ended up with PSSPQ scoring results that would render them to be favorably recommended as potential dating partner candidates also ended up also being predicted, based upon the prior developed discriminant function equation, to be granted high-level security clearance status were they to ever be processed for same.

      Six months following the completion of what has been described in the above paragraphs, we went back to the six persons who made use of the PSSPQ testing results for selecting dating partners when using online dating services. So far, all the persons, who were selected using their PSSPQ testing information, still remain as the dating partners of the three men and three ladies who, used the PSSPQ information when making their selections. So as to satisfy possible curiosity on the part of any reader, the 49 year old lady did 'select' the 59 year old man who had shown the exceptionally low LIE Scale scoring; as originally indicated he had one been an active alcoholic, but had been successfully 'dry' for the past 20+ years. It would not be at all incorrect to simply say that the 'customers' who used the obtained PSSPQ results information to help them make some quite specific dating choices are satisfied with the results; all have stated to Dr. Stone that they would be happy to write some testimonials regarding use of the PSSPQ for this kind of purpose in mind.

      If you have read this presentation up to this point, then quite obviously you are interested in the subject material. You are most likely worried, or at least a bit concerned regarding the wisdom and possible safety associated with utilization of online dating services.  When one is interested in making use of the online dating site offering modality, such can be regarded as being a real temptation to go ahead and hope for the best  - ; but this is a kind of belief that lacks any bona fide reality basis. If you really have any doubt about this, carry out the following described activity. Go to the Google( (or any other major) search engine and type in "horror story online dating."; You probably would not be surprised to find a couple listed URLs in response to the search. Do it and you will find hundreds of found URLS that are on the Internet with this very exact subject material heading. Take a look at some of these 'online dating horror stories' URLs and you will be shocked at the great many tragedies that have befallen individuals who have been severely victimized by their 'date' who had been found by using one of the Internet's many online dating services. Unfortunately, the most frequently used dating sites do not truly or  adequately screen or otherwise evaluate persons who subscribe to the dating services with respect to matters of honesty and integrity. Older readers of this presentation might recall that several years ago, before the advent of online dating, something very similar which had been carried out for many years and it was called Men looking for Women, Women looking for Men, or other gender combinations advertisements placed in the Personals section of large city daily newspapers and in large city focused monthly magazines. It was almost common knowledge that many crooks, perverts, scam artists, and the like very frequently used such ads when searching for potential victims. It seems unfortunate that the bad reputation of such personal ads has not generalized up to include the present popularity of online dating services  -  there really is not much difference between the 'old' newspaper/magazine personal ads and our now highly popular online dating personal descriptions.

     Use of the PSSPQ to initially provide some valid screening of persons of possible interest who are subscribers/members of any particular online dating service could be a very wise decision for a great many persons who want to use, or who already are using, such dating services. After all, the PSSPQ was designed to identify persons, and offer predictions for those persons, who should or who should not be granted high-level security clearances by the U.S. Government. Interesting, the presence of favorable levels of personality integrity and honesty for persons evaluated for such high level security clearances is based upon extremely high amounts of evaluative processing, which at the present time (i.e., early in 2007) typically takes anywhere from about a year to up to, and sometimes exceeding, three years to complete before a final decision is made. Such evaluate processing involves polygraphing the subject individual, sometimes multiple times. Exhaustive background investigations are conducted, which includes face-to-face conducted interviews with neighbors, colleagues and the like, full criminal backgrounds and arrest records checks, and of course, personal interviews with the subject individual him/herself. Each of these evaluative processing endeavors has been estimated to cost anywhere from about $10K upwards to $50K or more. More than 25 years ago, it was commonly said, within those Governmental agencies, bureaus, and organizations, whose employees typically hold high-level security clearance status, that the average [back then] cost for carrying out the necessary evaluative processing was $25K, The PSSPQ was originally validated based upon over a hundred persons being processed for clearance status and then was revalidated independently on over another one hundred similar such persons. If only the obsolete figure of $25K is taken as the average cost for establishing acceptable or unacceptable degrees of personal integrity and honesty, then the costs (to the government) for establishing such for those who also served as the validation samples in the building of the PSSPQ can be estimated to be well over $5,000,000. It is doubtful indeed that any other psychological type test or device has ever been constructed that involved such a financial expense to establish the employed criterion variable for which test item/scores/results were studied and later related.

     Comparison of the PSSPQ with other tests, devices, or procedures, that have been advertised by a few of the larger and currently more major (i.e., popular) online dating sites. for integrity or honesty evaluation of their members (i.e., possible dating candidates) can be easily carried out.  The compatibility, honesty, truth telling, etc. type testing that a few of the online sites offer are seemingly all regarded as proprietary by the sites.  In other words, very little information regarding how these various tests were constructed, the specific methodologies, validation sample descriptions, criterion variables described and many other aspects of adequate and correct testing construction have ever been publicly presented.  The psychology specialty area concerned with the construction of psychological tests is known as psychometrics.  The American Psychological Association has long ago specified that tests that are commercially offered should always publicly provide information as to most of the features involved in its construction  Most importantly, psychometric information regarding a test's reliability and validity must be available to possible users of the instrument.

     I, (i.e., Dr. Stone) recently spent a good deal of time in an attempt to try to find adequate psychometric information regarding those very few psychological type tests that only a very few of the online dating services sites offer for use.  I was totally unsuccessful; I found some loose description of the sample sizes involved in the building of a couple of the tests and a description of the personality theory that one of the compatibility tests was seemingly based.  No description of any reliability or validity estimations was encountered.  In contrast, the PSSPQ can be regarded as perhaps being just about the most publicly and widely described psychological testing instrument in use today, with respect to information being openly available regarding its construction, reliability, validity, criterion variables, etc.  Where does one find this information?  It has been on the Internet for the past several years.  There are currently just about 50 'official' sub site URLs that are descriptive of the PSSPQ and its various uses that have been placed on the Internet by the PSSPQ builder, myself.  The most major "home" type URL for the PSSPQ is: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspq.html.   To be found in this URL are links to dozens of the other sub site URLs that are descriptive of the PSSPQ.  One of these, in particular, is heavily devoted to description of the psychometric characteristics and history of the PSSPQ, clearly being descriptive of the various reliability and validity estimations that have been made.  These particular psychometric parameters, for the PSSPQ can be found at: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/psspqreliabilityvalidity.html.  ALL of the technical psychometric information that the American Psychological Association states should be made available for a commercially offered test, has been made available for the PSSPQ.  [Note - absolutely none of any of the other possibly available psychological type tests or devices, that have been associated with online dating, publicly provide the kind of psychometric information as does the PSSPQ.]  Persons interested in viewing all of the PSSPQ sub sites are invited to see their URL addresses by going to Google and enter "psspq" in the Google search box, click on Search.  When the various PSSPQ associated URLs. are displayed, go to the second listed one and click on the last part of the entry, the part that is: "(More results from www.home.earthlink.net)."  You will then see Google list about 54 PSSPQ sub pages.

     Let it be established once and for all, there are only a few online dating services sites that offer ANY type of psychological testing and the type most frequently touted is compatibility testing; the idea here is to match the personalities of persons which is based upon the unproved theory that couples with highly similar type personalities structures make the best couples for dating, romance and finally for marriage.  In other words, people with similar personalities make for happier couples.  Social psychologists are far from in agreement with this particular theory.  However, all of the compatibility testing, accomplished by a few of the more major online dating services sites, totally buys into this compatibility theory, without exception.  Testing for personal integrity and honesty is almost completely ignored by just about all the online dating services sites, the only really major exception appears to be True.com, who, in this area of concern, mainly warns potential users of the offered dating services that they could be arrested for false advertising and the like were they to falsely describe themselves; also some kind of limited background check for past criminality is available as an option.

     Right from its very beginnings, the PSSPQ was designed and constructed to be a test for personal integrity and honesty.  In fact it was designed to test for such in an extremely important context area of concern, the governmental granting and denial of high-level security clearances.  It has already been mentioned that the government , in each and every clearance evaluation case, is currently estimated to have to pay anywhere from about $10K to $50K or even more for the investigative processing that must be carried out and upon which a granting/denial decision is made.  When you have a short and quick test that very accurately (i.e., better than 95% accuracy) predicts such a final decision, many months or even years before the decision is actually made, you have a truly valid test that measures what the final granting/denial clearance decision is supposed to measure, which in summary form is nothing but personal integrity and honesty.  When this very same test is employed to test for the very same personality integrity and honesty variables, but in a somewhat different context situation, the only thing that has changed is the context situation.  The PSSPQ (and its celebrated and highly respected LIE Scale) measure the very same matters when used to evaluated potential dating partners as when the test is used to evaluate individuals for potential granting/denial of high-level security clearance status.  The test is the same, what it measures is the same, the only difference is the context in which the test is employed.  You can be rest assured that the PSSPQ is well designed to measure personality integrity and honesty in online dating context.

    To date, the PSSPQ has had fairly brief introduction time with respect to use in evaluation of potential dating partners, however, ALL of its utilizations have not involved any major dissatisfactions on the part of the purchasers of use of this test.  All available evidence, to date, has suggested that the PSSPQ offers a personal integrity and honesty screen of potential dating partners that is second to none, it has shown considered evidence that IT DOES VERY WELL  WHAT IT HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO DO.

     Just how well has the PSSPQ done what it was designed to do?  The PSSPQ was placed on the commercial market using the Internet in 2001, with sales increasing every year since then.  Up to the beginning of 2007, the PSSPQ was marketed to persons who were interested in discovering their chances for being granted (or denied) a high-level security clearance were t they to be processed for same.  Early in 2004, Dr. Stone (the PSSPQ's developer) remarked to a business marketing expert that in almost three years of 'selling' the PSSPQ he had not ever received any negative feedback, no purchaser of the services associated with use of the instrument had ever complained that it had produced an incorrect prediction regarding eventual security clearance granting even though hundreds and hundreds of such predictions had been given, based upon PSSPQ scoring results.  The expert then suggested that Dr. Stone officially announce, in his advertising of the PSSPQ this fact and that it might be wise to actually offer a money back guarantee with each 'sale' of the PSSPQ.  This suggestion was soon put into reality (i.e., see: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/moneybackguarantee.html).  Although a money back guarantee has been offered for almost three years, no one has ever yet indicted that the PSSPQ, in their case, had produced an incorrect prediction and as such, they would be wanting to want their money back.  One has to assume that this strongly suggests a high level of success in its measuring personal integrity and honesty in association with being processed objectively for potential high-level security clearance status.  Although there are almost hundreds of web pages that give mention to the PSSPQ, Dr. Stone has placed (at last count) some 54 web site URLs on the World Wide Web that, except for only a couple, are entirely focused upon the PSSPQ, its construction, different uses, unique attributes, etc.   Persons interested in viewing all of these particular PSSPQ sub sites are invited to see their URL addresses by going to Google and enter "psspq" in the Google search box, click on Search.  When the various PSSPQ associated URLs. are displayed, go to the second listed one and click on the last part of the entry, the part that is: "(More results from www.home.earthlink.net)."  You will then see Google list at least about 55+ PSSPQ sub pages.

     Purchase of use of the PSSPQ for use in evaluating potential 'dates' who have been (or will be) introduced to me can only be accomplished when such use is purchased from Dr. LeRoy A. Stone, developer and sole purveyor of the PSSPQ.  If Dr. Stone can be trusted, then you will get what you pay for.  Dr. Stone is well known nationally to have a trustworthy reputation, this can be easily documented in a number of ways.  His full and complete curriculum vitae (i.e., written professional history) can be found at: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/resume.htm.  Dr. Stone has been a member of the American Psychological Association since 1958 as well as the Psychonomic Society since 1964.  His membership in these professional organizations can be verified by use of their membership information that can be found in their Internet URLs.  He earned and was granted Forensic Diplomate status from the American Board of Forensic Psychology, a sub board of the American Board of Professional Psychology, in 1987 (this can be verified also by checking these Boards' Internet URLs, where diplomate possession is shown).  In 1998, Dr. Stone was granted a Certificate of Professional Qualification in Psychology by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards; again this can be verified by checking with this Board's Internet URL, where past granting of their Certification can be found.  He has never been arrested (except for a couple speeding/parking tickets).  He was employed as a Professor (e.g., Instructor to Full Professor) in the University of North Dakota's Department of Psychology, for over ten years.  He was a senior psychologist, Federally employed by the National Security Agency from 1975 to his Federal employment retirement in 1997; in this employment he held high-level security clearances.  In the past almost 50 years, he has been certified and/or licensed as a psychologist in a number of different states (i.e., North Dakota, Maryland, West Virginia, and Wyoming); he currently is licensed in WV. License No. 167, since 1977.  From 1977 to 1997, he maintained a part-time practice in the specialty field of forensic psychology, from 1997 to 2002 this practice increased in size almost up to full time; in 2002 he retired from this activity to devote more time to further development/sales of the PSSPQ. In the past almost 50 years of being a doctorate-possessing psychologist, Dr. Stone has engaged in a great deal of psychological research and, as a result, published a number of scientific articles (in professional journals) and books.  A complete listing of well over 225 of his journal articles and several books and psychological tests can be seen by clicking on HERE. All of his just given professional history can be easily checked, and all so interested in doing so, you are invited to please do so.  In addition to all of this, Dr. Stone's name is given in full along with his email address (i.e., lastone2@earthlink.net).  His business mailing address is shown in the end portion of this presentation.  In other words, anyone having any problem with this offering of PSSPQ services already clearly knows WHO is selling these services, HOW to reach him, and WHERE he is located - no one attempting any scam would allow himself to be so visible and therefore, reachable!  Dr. Stone's "home" web page can be reached by clicking on HERE.  Although not really connected with his commercial or professional activities, some might be interested in the fact that his single marriage will be having its 50th anniversary in December 2007.  For those of you who have been married for such a long period of time, you probably are fully aware that such a lengthy marriage almost always must be founded on personal integrity and honesty, for both parties, or it could never successfully last this long.

     In the event that a reader of this presentation has made it through all of the above material and is now wondering how one can obtain use of the PSSPQ to evaluate a potential dating partner who has been located using an online dating service site, the following should be helpful.

       Assuming that you only want to evaluate one person, as it might be overly costly to pay for several or so such evaluations, you should be at the at the stage of communication with your 'interested in' potential date that, based upon all previously obtained information about him/her, you remain still interested in perhaps actually dating him/her in the future.  In other words, it would be hoped that use of the PSSPQ is not at the very beginning stages of your communication with him/her, but rather after you have engaged in at least a couple (hopefully, more) letters, Emails, exchange of photos, telephone calls, or the like, before you reach the PSSPQ stage where you can then check out his/her personal integrity and honesty by use of some third party or independent outside service.  Let us assume that you are now at such a not-at-the-very-beginning communication stage with him/her.  You should now broach the idea (i.e., tell him/her) that you are a very careful person and that before the potential relationship involving him/her goes any further, you would like him to response to a short and quick psychological type test for which you are going to fully pay for.  His/her 'taking' (i.e., responding to) a 72-item, multiple-choice test will not cost him at all, as you are the one who is paying to have him psychologically evaluated using a testing instrument that has been devised for this very purpose.  It is STRONGLY advised, that you tell him/her that before you actually spend any money regarding such a testing you want him to tell you that he/she will or will not agree to be so tested.  You should tell him/her that the only way you would be willing to further communicate with him/her, which has some likelihood of leading to an actual meeting sometime in the near future, would be if he/she is willing to undergo the described testing.  In the event that he/she is not willing to submit to such testing, then all further communication should cease as you no longer would have any interest in continuing any further communication, which would totally cease that that point.  In the beginnings of use of the PSSPQ to evaluate potential online dating partner, a couple purchasers of this testing service never informed their potential dating partner BEFORE having the testing materials package sent to him/her - the end result was not good, in all three of these particular cases, the existing communicative relationships sharply ended right there.  Therefore, it is really mandatory that you clearly would like to have him/her 'take' the PSSPQ so that you might be able to obtain the results and their interpretations and thus hopefully increase your trust of him/her so that the quality of the existing relationship might further develop.

     This is one way, right at the very beginning, that the threat of having to respond to the PSSPQ can very clearly tell you a great deal regarding your prospective suitor's trustworthiness. At this stage, you do not even have to pay a dime for the threat of being invited to be tested.  In the event that your focused up male/female does agree to be 'tested' and that he/she will respond to the PSSPQ.  However, before you can request Dr. Stone and his staff to send to your prospective a complete PSSPQ package, you will have to have a working mailing address for which to mail the materials too.  Also, some type of name, which can merely be a first name, pseudo name or even false name must be provided to Dr. Stone to assure that the sent testing materials will go to the appropriate individual.  Quite obviously, an improved chance of the right person receiving the testing materials is made possible if he/she would agree to allow such materials to be addressed to his own correct full name.  It should be mentioned at this point that it might be a prudent and wise idea to introduce the idea that your online dating person might also be interested in you 'taking' the same PSSPQ with him/her receiving the same scoring information on you as you will receive pertaining to him/her.  It would normally be expected that you would be willing to have him have you tested in the same way as you are wanted him to be tested.  Both of you would be urged to consider this type of cooperative action.

     Dr. Stone will mail, without delay, the PSSPQ testing materials to your dating prospect upon receipt of the fee that will fully cover all of the PSSPQ's utilization.  This fee, for evaluating the personal integrity and honesty of your prospective dating partner, is set at slightly below the amount level as when used to evaluate one's future chances to be granted/denied high-level security clearance status.  This fee reduction is based on several different reasons, the main being that a money back guarantee cannot be offered as in the security clearance type prediction ]making, the given prediction can be proven wrong or incorrect.  When used to evaluate possible dating prospects, the PSSPQ really cannot definitely be shown to predict any specific behavior or action; rather the resulting PSSPQ information is employed to evaluate a generalized state of whether the respondent is a liar or not, what his/her vices are and to what levels his past is with respect to these vices.  Although your dating prospect is not known whether he/she will ever be in any situation where by he/she might be evaluated for a security clearance, a numerical prediction still will be given.  This particular numerical type score does offer some additional way of viewing your dating prospect in an overall or generalized fashion.  For example, if your dating prospect is favorably predicted to be likely in the future to be granted a security clearance were he/she evaluated for such, this would seem to also imply that perhaps you should consider him/her favorably with respect to his/her personal integrity and honesty.

     After your dating prospect receives and responds to the PSSPQ testing materials, he/she will send all of these materials back to Dr. Stone in an addressed/stamped envelope that has been provided.  In the testing instructions, your dating prospect will have been informed that you will never be allowed to view his/her actual test item responses, but rather you will be given his scores to various sub tests that are contained in the overall test.  Also, you will be given interpretive information that will allow you to correctly interpret the PSSPQ's score results.  Your dating prospect will also be told that you alone will be the one to make any future decisions, regarding continuation or ceasing any future online dating communications and subsequent actions.  Dr. Stone can provide you with the PSSPQ scores, what they mean but the final decision on how to act upon such information is entirely yours, as it should be.  In no way will Dr. Stone attempt to 'lecture' you or tell you what to do.  You alone will have to incorporate the PSSPQ based information regarding your online dating prospect with all of the other information you have, or think you have, regarding you potential dating partner.

     Specifically, the PSSPQ scoring information that you will be provided are his/her T-scores on all 11 areas of concern (i.e., alcohol abuse, illegal drug use and drug abuse, financial irresponsibility, emotional and mental illness, sexual history troubles, etc.).  Most importantly, a T-score on the PSSPQ's LIE Scale.  A prediction score, based upon a discriminant function set up to predict success/failure in being eventually granted high-level security clearance status - this can be, in your case, interpretable as a kind of overall or generalized personal integrity and honesty scoring.

     For summary purposes let me briefly list out what the above instructions (in narrative form) specified:

1.  Inform your online dating person that you would like to have him/her PSSPQ tested and that you would be fully
    responsible for the financial costs for same.

2.  Send a bank cashiers check or postal money order, in the amount of $100.00 to Dr. LeRoy A. Stone, P.O. Box
    395, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0395 along with you prospective date's name (in some form or another) and
    his/her mailing address.  Also, be sure that your name/address is also given to Dr. Stone so that he will be able
     to accurately mail to you the resulting PSSPQ scores and interpretations.  [Please note that ONLY a bank
     cashiers check or a US Postal money order will be accepted for payment; Dr. Stone no longer wants to support
     use of credit cards due to their employment of "hidden fees" and other problem matters.  He, in his personal
     life, has kept only one credit card, and except for the fact that making a hotel reservation absolutely requires
     the use of a credit card; he has not used a credit card to make any retail purchase in well over two years!  The
     rest of the USA population would be wise to follow his credit card disuse behavior! Any reader of this would be
     advised to take a look at the URL whose address is:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/eight/]
     In the event that a PSSPQ customer is outside the USA, an International Money Order would suffice.

3.  When the above specified  payment and names/addresses have been received by Dr. Stone, he will then
     immediately mail to your online 'partner' a complete PSSPQ testing materials package.

4   When the completed PSSPQ testing package has been returned to Dr. Stone, he and his staff will score your
    online 'partners', compute the available prediction and then send this scoring information, along with
    appropriate interpretative materials, to you.

5.  Dr. Stone will retain your online dating partner's item response information, along with both your
    names/addresses for no longer than one month following the original scoring of the involved PSSPQ responses,
    at that time ALL such information will be destroyed (i.e., put through a shredder).  This materials destruction is
    both for both your benefits as well as for Dr. Stone's.  Dr. Stone, in no way has any other interest in your dating
    partner's responses, your names/addresses other than to receive payment for services and to hopefully provide
    valuable psychological information to you.  Dr. Stone absolutely guarantees that he will, for approximately one
    month's time, protect the privacy of your personal information and that he will share none of it with any other
    third party.

6.  In the event that you send in the fee, required for PSSPQ use, and a complete PSSPQ testing package is sent to
     the  named person you provided a name/address for, and that person decides her/she does not want to respond
     to the PSSPQ and sends back to Dr. Stone, the complete and unresponded to testing package, a refund of
    $50.00 will be sent back to you.  However, if he/she fails to return, to Dr. Stone, the complete and unresponded
    to testing package, the full $100.00 fee will be kept and no partial refund to you will be made.

     In the event that you have actually read all of the above presentation, you are now knowledgeable and aware of how  to increase your personal protection if you are now involved in an online dating communication arrangement, or are contemplating the doing of such in the future.  Be aware that the various online dating services sites do not really offer anything  what information the PSSPQ can provide to you regarding the personal integrity and honesty of your online dating 'partner.'  Only a couple such dating services offer what they refer to as compatibility testing and matching - such does NOT pertain to personal integrity and honesty matters.  Only one of the most major online dating service sites offers what they refer to as a "criminal background" search.  This is. of course, a very big improvement over doing nothing in this direction, but an Internet accomplished criminal background investigation unfortunately can be very limited and not at all accurate.  It is a well known fact that many online dating attempters do not use their true name, sometimes they use the names of bona fide real people who they know or are aware of.  Also, each of the 50 states create/maintain their own police arrest records, the Federal arrest records are separate.  Great time lags exist regarding any exchanges of information between holders of police arrest records - much recorded information never gets exchanged at all.  What this means is that an Internet based criminal background check may be very incomplete or simply "not there' at all.

     What this means is that the PSSPQ really is about the only game in town with respect to being able to quickly, cheaply, and validly obtain meaningful information regarding the personal integrity and honesty of the individual you are now (or will in the future) communicating with and hopefully plan to perhaps date in a "face-to-face" meeting.  Please know that there is no way in which you can absolutely, and without any possibility of error, discover the true and real level of personal integrity and honesty that exists for your prospective 'partner.'  The more expense and time you are willing to put into a search for such information will reward you with more accurate information; however, you will never be able to 'purchase' an absolute guarantee that your obtained information will be totally accurate.  The PSSPQ represents, one of the least costly and involves a lesser time commitment  to carry out, than any other equally potent informational source, regarding the obtaining of such personal information pertaining to another person.  The fact that the PSSPQ has proven itself in a commercially successful fashion, for the past almost six years, when used to assess and to accurately predict eventual success/failure to be granted high-level security clearance status, should make one confident that it truly does what it claims to do.

     All of the extensive above presentation will have very little impact unless the reader is truly believing the reality of the many dangers once can face and easily encounter when attempting to find a dating type partner using an online dating site.  Dr. Stone has frequently encountered persons of just about all ages, in the population of those interested in perhaps making use of online dating attempts, who express surprisingly low levels of fear or trepidation for such activities.  The reader of this presentation is urged make use of his/her own favorite Internet search engine (e.g., Google, MSN, Yahoo, ASK, etc.) and see what your search engine 'gives' to you when you input a combination of terms such as:  "horror stories online dating" or "dangers of online dating." or any other similar content collection of terms.  Then take a look at least several of the URL identified web pages that your search engine.  With such a single search, it would not be at all unusual for your search engine to provide you with at least a hundred or so pertinent URLs.  Another very quick way to perhaps see a convincing argument that online dating attempts include some very real dangers is to take a look at the Wikipedia, the free Internet encyclopedia's entry on "Online dating service."  Take a look at this Wikipedia entry's section on 'Problems with Online Dating Services.'  To make it easy for the reader, you will be able to 'pull up' this Wikopedia entry by clicking on
Here.
 
 
 

This site last updated 28 March 2007    Copyrighted 2001-2007  Dr. LeRoy A. Stone [PSSPQ]
U.S.Post Office Box 395, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425-0395,  Email us at:  lastone2@earthlink.net  In the event that you might attempt to send an Email to Dr. Stone, you may initially be blocked by his 'spam blocker' and in order to successful communicate with him you may be required to request his spam blocker (which is currently set on 'High') to allow you through; sorry for this but the amount of spam being sent to this Email address has been incredible.

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