CRIQ: An innovative measure using comparison awareness to avoid self-presentation tactics

•We present the Career Role Identification Questionnaire (CRIQ).•We present the Comparison Awareness Inducing technique (CAIT).•Across samples the CRIQ is a reliable measure of career role identification.•Semi-comparative response formats lead to moderation of desirable responding.

The article presents a new measure for career role identification, the Career Role Identification Questionnaire (CRIQ). In constructing the CRIQ, we used the Comparison Awareness Inducing Technique (CAIT), a new and innovative method to reduce the effects of self-presentation tactics.The results show that the CRIQ measures identification with the six career roles conceptualized by Hoekstra (2011). The inventory has reliable scales and a clear factorial structure. Furthermore, the CAIT receives some support as a new way to deal with the problem of social desirability in self-report measures. The CAIT technique is thought to induce comparison awareness and thus suppress various response tendencies.