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Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms, diagnosis and prescribed cure

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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.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

152-159

Publication/Series

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology

Volume

54

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Psychology

Keywords

  • personality
  • social desirability
  • psychometrics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1467-9450