Social Desirability and Self-Reports: Testing Models of Socially Desirable Responding

2004 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Holtgraves
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Self Reports

scholarly journals Social Desirability in Spouse Ratings

2018 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 593-608
Author(s):  
Vaka Vésteinsdóttir ◽  
Eva D. Steingrimsdottir ◽  
Adam Joinson ◽  
Ulf-Dietrich Reips ◽  
Fanney Thorsdottir
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Social Desirability Scale ◽  
External Criterion ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Observer Ratings ◽  
One Year ◽  
Do So

Whether or not socially desirable responding is a cause for concern in personality assessment has long been debated. For many researchers, McCrae and Costa laid the issue to rest when they showed that correcting for socially desirable responding in self-reports did not improve the agreement with spouse ratings on the Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience Personality Inventory. However, their findings rest on the assumption that observer ratings in general, and spouse ratings in particular, are an unbiased external criterion. If spouse ratings are also susceptible to socially desirable responding, correcting for the bias in self-rated measures cannot be assumed to increase agreement between self-reports and spouse ratings, and thus failure to do so should not be taken as evidence for the ineffectiveness of measuring and correcting for socially desirable responding. In the present study, McCrae and Costa’s influential study was replicated with the exception of measuring socially desirable responding with the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale, in both self-reports and spouse ratings. Analyses were based on responses from 70 couples who had lived together for at least one year. The results showed that both self-reports and spouse ratings are susceptible to socially desirable responding and thus McCrae and Costa’s conclusion is drawn into question.

scholarly journals Descriptive consistency and social desirability in self‐and peer reports

1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Borkenau ◽  
Fritz Ostendorf
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Personality Inventories ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Peer Reports

In the present study, 300 subjects were administered 20 sets of four trait‐descriptive terms where aspects of content and evaluation were unconfounded (e.g. firm, severe, lenient, and lax). Each subject was also evaluated by three peers using the same sets of four trait terms. Moreover, the subjects responded to several personality inventories and rating scales, and they were also described on these rating scales by their peers. The results showed that the subjects frequently ascribed to themselves or to their peers two favourable trait terms that were descriptively inconsistent (e.g. firm, lenient). A measure of individual differences in socially desirable responding was constructed by summing all desirable responses. Subjects who described themselves in a socially desirable manner were less neurotic and more conscientious according to self‐reports as well as peer reports. Several implications of the findings are discussed, and the present SD measure is compared with several well‐known desirability scales.

Evidence of an Indirect Effect of Generativity on Fear of Death Through Ego-Integrity Considering Social Desirability

2021 ◽  
pp. 003022282110531
Author(s):  
Holger Busch
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Fear Of Death ◽  
Implicit Associations ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Ego Integrity ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Implicit Associations Test

Recent research has shown an indirect effect of generativity on fear of death through ego-integrity in older adults. The present paper aims at demonstrating that the indirect effect is valid even when controlling for social desirability. For that purpose, participants ( N = 260 German adults) in study 1 provided self-reports on generativity, ego-integrity, fear of death, and social desirability. Analyses confirmed the indirect effect when the tendency for socially desirable responding was statistically controlled. In study 2, participants ( N = 133 German adults) also reported on their generativity and ego-integrity. Fear of death, however, was assessed with a reaction time-based measure (i.e., the Implicit Associations Test). Again, the indirect effect could be confirmed. Taken together, the studies lend further credibility to the extant findings on the indirect effect of generativity on fear of death through ego-integrity.

scholarly journals Do they really wash their hands? Prevalence estimates for personal hygiene behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic based on indirect questions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Mieth ◽  
Maike M. Mayer ◽  
Adrian Hoffmann ◽  
Axel Buchner ◽  
Raoul Bell
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Hygiene Measures ◽  
Prevalence Estimates ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Crosswise Model

Abstract Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, billions of people have to change their behaviours to slow down the spreading of the virus. Protective measures include self-isolation, social (physical) distancing and compliance with personal hygiene rules, particularly regular and thorough hand washing. Prevalence estimates for the compliance with the COVID-19 measures are often based on direct self-reports. However, during a health crisis there is strong public pressure to comply with health and safety regulations so that people’s responding in direct self-reports may be seriously compromised by social desirability. Methods In an online survey, an indirect questioning technique was used to test whether the prevalence of hygiene practices may be lower than in conventional surveys when confidentiality of responding is guaranteed. The Extended Crosswise Model is an indirect questioning technique that guarantees the confidentiality of responding. To the degree that direct self-reports are biased by social desirability, prevalence estimates of hygiene practices such as thorough hand washing based on the Extended Crosswise Model should be lower than those based on direct self-reports. Results We analysed data of 1434 participants. In the direct questioning group 94.5% of the participants claimed to practice proper hand hygiene; in the indirect questioning group a significantly lower estimate of only 78.1% was observed. Conclusions These results indicate that estimates of the degree of commitment to measures designed to counter the spread of the disease may be significantly inflated by social desirability in direct self-reports. Indirect questioning techniques with higher levels of confidentiality seem helpful in obtaining more realistic estimates of the degree to which people follow the recommended personal hygiene measures. More realistic estimates of compliance can help to inform and to adjust public information campaigns on COVID-19 hygiene recommendations.

Coping, Defense and Socially Desirable Responses

1968 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 985-988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry A. Alker
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Social Desirability Scale ◽  
Strategic Capacity ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
The Social

Coping and defensive behaviors, assessed by intensive interviews, covary, respectively, with the presence of socially desirable and socially undesirable inventory responses. Minimizing the influence of the social desirability variable consequently interferes with the strategic capacity of inventory items to index coping and defense. Furthermore, using low social-desirability scale value items most effectively discriminates between genuine and defensively distorted inventory responses. Neutral items are less efficient in this connection even though they minimize socially desirable responding.

Personality, situation, and positive–negative asymmetry in socially desirable responding

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjaana Lindeman ◽  
Markku Verkasalo
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Personal Ideals ◽  
Public Setting ◽  
Extreme Responses ◽  
Private Setting ◽  
Psychological Determinant

Based on previous research on socially desirable responding and positive—negative asymmetry, we hypothesized that (i) impression management is higher in public than in private settings, (ii) personal ideals linked to exemplification, ingratiation, and intimidation are related to an impression management tendency, (iii) negatively keyed social desirability items receive more extreme responses than positively keyed items, and (iv) self‐esteem is correlated higher with negatively than with positively keyed self‐deception items. Based on Jones and Pittman's (1982) model, exemplification, ingratiation, and intimidation are defined as impression management strategies that aim at presenting oneself as worthy, likable, or dangerous, respectively. Principally, the results obtained in a public setting (N=177) and a private setting (N= 165) support these hypotheses. The overall pattern of findings suggests that both context and personal ideals exert an influence on impression management scores, and that the keying direction of an item may be an important psychological determinant of a test response.

scholarly journals A Scale to Assess Student Perceptions of Academic Climates

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-122
Author(s):  
Teresa A. Janz ◽  
Sandra W. Pyke
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Classroom Climate ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Social Desirability Scale ◽  
Five Factors ◽  
Chilly Climate ◽  
Climate Scale

Sandler and Hall (1986) define a chilly academic climate as the "... subtle ways women are treated differently — ways that communicate to women that they are not quite first-class citizens in the academic community" (p. 1). This paper describes the construction of a scale to assess university students' perceptions of the chilly climate. An initial pool of 123 items was refined based on statistical analyses of the responses of 192 students to produce a 28-item Perceived Chilly Climate Scale (PCCS). Factor analysis identified five factors: Climate Students Hear About; Sexist Treatment; Climate Students Experience Personally; Classroom Climate; and Safety. To investigate further the reliability and validity of the scale, the PCCS, an Alienation Scale (Dean, 1961) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Reynolds, 1982) responses were gathered from 327 students. As expected, the PCCS was significantly related to alienation but unrelated to socially desirable responding. Additional evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the PCCS is presented.

scholarly journals Can We Rely on Self-Assessments of Sense of Coherence? The Effects of Socially Desirable Responding on the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) Responses

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 278
Author(s):  
Lajunen ◽  
Gaygısız
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire ◽  
Life Questionnaire ◽  
Essential Factor ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Self Assessments ◽  
The Relationship

A large number of studies in health psychology have shown that sense of coherence (SOC) is an essential factor in wellbeing and health. SOC is most commonly measured with the Antonovsky’s Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ), which has been so far translated into at least 48 languages. Despite the vast popularity of the OLQ, the relationships between OLQ and socially desirable responding (impression management and self-deception) have not been studied. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the correlations between social desirability and Antonovsky’s OLQ. Method: The first sample consisted of 423 students who completed the 13-item OLQ and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), including the Lie scale. Also, the Balanced Inventory for Desirable Responding by Paulhus was administered together with the OLQ to 202 students. Results: SOC correlated positively with measures of social desirability among men but not among women. Hence, sex moderated the relationship between socially desirable responding and sense of coherence. Conclusions: Socially desirable responding and, especially, self-deception are positively related to high scores in SOC among men but not among women. The OLQ as a measure of sense of coherence can be used among women without worrying about the bias caused by socially desirable responding. When using the OLQ among men, the strong relationship between self-deception and sense of coherence should be taken into account.

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