Social Desirability of the Runner Studies of Attitude Patterns

Edwards ( 1957) noted that endorsement of personality test items correlated .87 with item social-desirability ratings. Many studies since then have verified that the probability of item selection is directly linked with its social desirability. One may infer that some personality tests may measure a social-desirability response set rather than the dimensions described in its manual. Edwards' method was used in the present study to examine the social desirability of the Runner Studies of Attitude Patterns (1970), a phenomenological personalily measure used in counselling and in selection. The 102 statements from the Rumer Studies of Attitude Patterns common to the 1964 and 1970 editions were administered to 119 female and 135 male entering freshmen at Shippensburg State College, Pennsylvania. Ss were instructed to rate each item on a 9-point scale on the basis of how socially desirable or undesirable they judged it to be in describing others. The mean rating of an item was its social desirability value. Each S rated approximately one-thud of the items. Then, 359 male and 444 female entering freshmen from the same college were asked to describe themselves by responding either true or false to each of the personality statements. Item endorsement was determined by the proportion of true responses. Sex differences were noted for both the mean SD ratings of many items and proportion of endorsement. SD ratings for the female group ranged from 3.039 to 7.546 with the mean and standard deviation of all items 5.035 and 1.002 respectively. SD ratings for the male group ranged frrom 3.427 to 6.600 with the mean and standard deviation of all items 5.079 and .796 respectively. These data clearly indicate that the items on the Runner are generally neutral with respect to social desirability. The correlations between social-desirability value and proportion endorsement were .488 for males, .294 for females and .476 for the total group. Thus, although the items are neutral with respect to social desirability, item endorsement is moderately related to its SD value

Social desirability · Applied Psychology · Counseling Practices and Supervision · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychological Testing and Assessment · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Factor Structure of the Runner Studies of Attitude Patterns

  Open Access•Norman M Chansky, Robert W Covert et al.•Educational and Psychological…•1972

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• The social desirability variable in personality assessment and research

  Allen Louis Edwards•The social desirability variable…•1982

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