Five-factor inventories have a major higher order factor related to social desirability which can be reduced by framing items neutrally
Bäckström, Martin LU ; Björklund, Fredrik LU
and Lindén, Magnus
LU
(2009)
In Journal of Research in Personality
43(3).
p.335-344
- Abstract
- The factors in self-report inventories measuring the five-factor model (FFM) correlate with one another although they theoretically should not. Study 1 showed, across three different FFM-questionnaires, that almost all of the common variance between factors can be attributed to a single general factor related to social desirability. In Study 2, simple rephrasing of items from a FFM-questionnaire made them substantially less socially desirable, while the inventory’s empirical (five factor) structure remained the same. Participants low in social desirability showed little difference between how they responded to the original items vs. the neutral items. For participants high in social desirability the difference was considerably larger. The... (More)
- The factors in self-report inventories measuring the five-factor model (FFM) correlate with one another although they theoretically should not. Study 1 showed, across three different FFM-questionnaires, that almost all of the common variance between factors can be attributed to a single general factor related to social desirability. In Study 2, simple rephrasing of items from a FFM-questionnaire made them substantially less socially desirable, while the inventory’s empirical (five factor) structure remained the same. Participants low in social desirability showed little difference between how they responded to the original items vs. the neutral items. For participants high in social desirability the difference was considerably larger. The simplicity of reducing social desirability in self-rating inventories of the FFM, and the usefulness of this endeavor, is discussed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1390812
- author
- Bäckström, Martin
LU
; Björklund, Fredrik
LU
and Lindén, Magnus
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2009
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Factor analysis, Big Five, Social desirability, Personality
- in
- Journal of Research in Personality
- volume
- 43
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 335 - 344
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000266384400004
- scopus:64949144445
- ISSN
- 0092-6566
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jrp.2008.12.013
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c192de6e-52e3-4b15-9161-c1ea50ae5288 (old id 1390812)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 14:42:01
- date last changed
- 2022-04-22 04:40:51
@article{c192de6e-52e3-4b15-9161-c1ea50ae5288,
abstract = {{The factors in self-report inventories measuring the five-factor model (FFM) correlate with one another although they theoretically should not. Study 1 showed, across three different FFM-questionnaires, that almost all of the common variance between factors can be attributed to a single general factor related to social desirability. In Study 2, simple rephrasing of items from a FFM-questionnaire made them substantially less socially desirable, while the inventory’s empirical (five factor) structure remained the same. Participants low in social desirability showed little difference between how they responded to the original items vs. the neutral items. For participants high in social desirability the difference was considerably larger. The simplicity of reducing social desirability in self-rating inventories of the FFM, and the usefulness of this endeavor, is discussed.}},
author = {{Bäckström, Martin and Björklund, Fredrik and Lindén, Magnus}},
issn = {{0092-6566}},
keywords = {{Factor analysis; Big Five; Social desirability; Personality}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{335--344}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Research in Personality}},
title = {{Five-factor inventories have a major higher order factor related to social desirability which can be reduced by framing items neutrally}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2008.12.013}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jrp.2008.12.013}},
volume = {{43}},
year = {{2009}},
}