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The properties and utility of less evaluative personality scales: Reduction of social desirability; increase of construct and discriminant validity.

Bäckström, Martin LU and Björklund, Fredrik LU orcid (2020) In Frontiers in Psychology 11. p.1-15
Abstract
Evaluative neutralization implies rephrasing items such that it is less clear to the respondent what would be a desirable response in the given population. The current research compares evaluatively neutralized scales measuring the FFM model with standard counterparts. Study 1 reveals that evaluatively neutralized scales are less influenced by social desirability. Study 2 estimates higher-order factor models for neutralized vs. standard five-factor scales. In contrast to standard inventories, there was little support for higher-order factors for neutralized scales. Study 3 demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity for the neutralized scales, e.g., by less inflated correlations to external measures. It is argued that... (More)
Evaluative neutralization implies rephrasing items such that it is less clear to the respondent what would be a desirable response in the given population. The current research compares evaluatively neutralized scales measuring the FFM model with standard counterparts. Study 1 reveals that evaluatively neutralized scales are less influenced by social desirability. Study 2 estimates higher-order factor models for neutralized vs. standard five-factor scales. In contrast to standard inventories, there was little support for higher-order factors for neutralized scales. Study 3 demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity for the neutralized scales, e.g., by less inflated correlations to external measures. It is argued that evaluatively neutralized inventories help researchers come to grips with social desirability in personality measurement, and are particularly useful when the factor structure is central to the research question and there is a focus on discriminant validity. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Big Five, personality measurement, personality structure, self-ratings, social desirability
in
Frontiers in Psychology
volume
11
article number
560271
pages
15 pages
publisher
Frontiers Media S. A.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85095952163
  • pmid:33192825
ISSN
1664-1078
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2020.560271
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4b7acb67-7463-43e7-91a5-6ff4d0cdee3e
date added to LUP
2020-10-27 08:49:36
date last changed
2022-04-19 01:21:34
@article{4b7acb67-7463-43e7-91a5-6ff4d0cdee3e,
  abstract     = {{Evaluative neutralization implies rephrasing items such that it is less clear to the respondent what would be a desirable response in the given population. The current research compares evaluatively neutralized scales measuring the FFM model with standard counterparts. Study 1 reveals that evaluatively neutralized scales are less influenced by social desirability. Study 2 estimates higher-order factor models for neutralized vs. standard five-factor scales. In contrast to standard inventories, there was little support for higher-order factors for neutralized scales. Study 3 demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity for the neutralized scales, e.g., by less inflated correlations to external measures. It is argued that evaluatively neutralized inventories help researchers come to grips with social desirability in personality measurement, and are particularly useful when the factor structure is central to the research question and there is a focus on discriminant validity.}},
  author       = {{Bäckström, Martin and Björklund, Fredrik}},
  issn         = {{1664-1078}},
  keywords     = {{Big Five; personality measurement; personality structure; self-ratings; social desirability}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  pages        = {{1--15}},
  publisher    = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
  series       = {{Frontiers in Psychology}},
  title        = {{The properties and utility of less evaluative personality scales: Reduction of social desirability; increase of construct and discriminant validity.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.560271}},
  doi          = {{10.3389/fpsyg.2020.560271}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}