Abstract
Background
Driving under the influence of alcohol represents one of the main driving crimes and a risk to road safety and public health. In Portugal, if there are well-founded doubts about the psychological fitness to drive, the competent authority may determine a psychological assessment. The present study analyses the results in the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - Revised (EPQ-R) in a sample with driving crimes under the influence of alcohol.
Methods
A sample of 76 male drivers (mean age around 43 years; age range = 26–60) underwent to a psychological assessment in the Mobility and Transports Institute, due to an official record of driving with a blood alcohol level of 1.2 g/l or more. The assessment included the EPQ-R, which examines three dimensions of personality - Psychoticism (P), Extroversion (E) and Neuroticism (N) and a Lie/Social Desirability scale (L).
Results
Drivers have committed around 3 crimes (range: 1–7) for drink driving in the past 10 years. Mean N (P < 0.001) and P (P < 0.001) scores were significantly lower, and mean L score (P < 0.001) was significantly higher compared to the Portuguese normative data of EPQ-R (783 men, ages between 16 and 60 years). Mean E score (P = 0.16) was not statistically different from the normative E score.
Conclusions
The social desirability (proneness for lying or faking good) had a significant influence on EPQ-R results, favouring dimensions that assess psychopathological functioning (N, P). Although this questionnaire is an objective method to assess personality in different normative contexts, its suitability has proved to be limited in drink driving offenders.
The social desirability effect in personality assessment of drink driving offenders