Pathological lying and tasks of psychological assessment

Pathological lying is compulsive and impulsive, pervasive conduct of the individual, does not aim to achieve material gain, but sometimes there are also self-defeating quality. A small number of research works on intelligence or personality of people who exhibit pathological lying, because they are not operationalized criteria of disorder and methodology of the test assessment. The aim of this paper is presenting how psychological assessment can respond to a number of important questions: a differential diagnostic dilemma (distinguishing pathological lying of confabulations, delusions beliefs and simulation), what is the amount and structure of intelligence in these subjects, if the person proves neuropsychological deficits that are expected in the prefrontal localization, whether pathological lying beside respondent meets criteria for personality disorder, identifying roles / motives which lie in a dynamic personality, the family system and social environment. The paper outlines the specific psychological tests to be applied in order to respond to these questions and how to harmonize the methods of testing with patients who exhibit pathological lying.