Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms, diagnosis and prescribed cure
Author
Summary, in English
An analysis of social desirability in personality assessment is presented. Starting with the symptoms, Study 1 showed that mean ratings of graded personality items are moderately to strongly linearly related to social desirability (Self deception, Impression formation, and the first PC), suggesting that item popularity may be a useful heuristic tool for identifying items which elicit socially desirable responding. We diagnose the cause of socially desirable responding as an interaction between the evaluative content of the item and enhancement motivation in the rater. Study 2 introduced a possible cure; evaluative neutralization of items. To test the feasibility of the method lay psychometricians (undergraduates) reformulated existing personality test items according to written instructions. The new items were indeed lower in social desirability while essentially retaining the five factor structure and reliability of the inventory. We conclude that although neutralization is no miracle cure, it is simple and has beneficial effects.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
152-159
Publication/Series
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
Volume
54
Issue
2
Full text
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Psychology
Keywords
- personality
- social desirability
- psychometrics
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1467-9450