PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF THE ACCOUNTANT FRAUDSTER

Abstract

Corrupted professional accountants are vital for planning, creating and hiding financial fraud. No financial fraud can be made without help from an expert in Accounting. Through this paper we try to raise awareness of the necessity of having ethical professional accountants and we promote rigorous psychological testing for candidates to the Accounting profession. The purpose of this paper is to present a psychological profile of a fraudster in the field of Accounting and recommended profiles for the candidates to the profession. We presented the fraud triangle of opportunity, motivation and rationalization so we can begin to enter the mind of the accountant fraudster. Then we presented the profile of the character prone to financial fraud as shown in Accounting literature. Further, we presented psychological tests backed by specialty literature that could be useful to select candidates fit for the Accounting profession. The literature presents us with recommended psychological profiles for the professional accountants. A great psychological test used for hiring in the Accounting profession is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II, used by the government, military, universities, non profit organizations and religious organizations in the USA. The recommended personality types for Accounting are the supervisors and inspectors from the guardians branch for low ranking accountants and the fieldmarshals and masterminds from the rationals branch for high ranking accountants.

Keywords

• accounting ethics, personality test, accounting psychology test, fraud