Socially desirable responding and its elusive effects on the validity of personality assessments

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6202808
AutoresSampo V Paunonen (Western University), Etienne P Lebel (0000-0001-7377-008X, Western University)
Ano2012
Volume103
Fascículo1
Páginas158-175
Data de publicação2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
EditoraAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/a0028165
PMID22564012
OpenAlexW2100464671
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas29
Referências citadas26

Past studies of socially desirable self-reports on the items of personality measures have found inconsistent effects of the response bias on the measures' predictive validities, with some studies reporting small effects and other studies reporting large effects. Using Monte Carlo methods, we evaluated various models of socially desirable responding by systematically adding predetermined amounts of the bias to the simulated personality trait scores of hypothetical test respondents before computing test-criterion validity correlations. Our study generally supported previous findings that have reported relatively minor decrements in criterion prediction, even with personality scores that were massively infused with desirability bias. Furthermore, the response bias failed to reveal itself as a statistical moderator of test validity or as a suppressor of validity. Large differences between some respondents' obtained test scores and their true trait scores, however, meant that the personality measure's construct validity would be severely compromised and, more specifically, that estimates of those individuals' criterion performance would be grossly in error. Our discussion focuses on reasons for the discrepant results reported in the literature pertaining to the effect of socially desirable responding on criterion validity. More important, we explain why the lack of effects of desirability bias on the usual indicators of validity, moderation, and suppression should not be surprising

Construct validity · Criterion validity · Developmental psychology · External validity · Incremental validity · Moderation · Personality · Personality Assessment Inventory · Predictive validity · Psychometrics · Response bias · Social desirability · Social desirability bias · Test (biology) · Test validity · Trait · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology