Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms, diagnosis and prescribed cure
Bäckström, Martin LU and Björklund, Fredrik LU
(2013)
In Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
54(2).
p.152-159
- Abstract
- 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... (More)
- 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3045705
- author
- Bäckström, Martin
LU
and Björklund, Fredrik
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- personality, social desirability, psychometrics
- in
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
- volume
- 54
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 152 - 159
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000316619500015
- scopus:84875381587
- pmid:23252410
- ISSN
- 1467-9450
- DOI
- 10.1111/sjop.12015
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c95ed780-e388-42b2-a4d2-7b5b43309d47 (old id 3045705)
- alternative location
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sjop.12015/epdf
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:55:46
- date last changed
- 2022-04-04 22:36:09
@article{c95ed780-e388-42b2-a4d2-7b5b43309d47,
abstract = {{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.}},
author = {{Bäckström, Martin and Björklund, Fredrik}},
issn = {{1467-9450}},
keywords = {{personality; social desirability; psychometrics}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{152--159}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Scandinavian Journal of Psychology}},
title = {{Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms, diagnosis and prescribed cure}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2246897/3911106.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1111/sjop.12015}},
volume = {{54}},
year = {{2013}},
}