Tat Stories and the Social Desirability Variable

Abstract

Edwards has suggested that a response bias colors replies to psychological tescs. H e holds that Ss in varying degrees d o nor answer in a fashion which reflects their true feelings. Rather [hey respond in ways which are socially acceptable, giving replies which conform to what the group approves. H e considers the tendency to give conforming responses a stable personality characteristic and measures it with a test called the Social Desirability, or S D Scale. Investigation of the S D effect has been largely confined to objective tests. It was proposed to extend the inquiry to a projective test, the Thematic Apperception Test. Since projective techniques are presumably less transparent than objective tests, d o they circurnvenc the tendency to present oneself in a favorable light? Proceduve.-The Edwards SD Scale (short form) and six TAT cards were administered individually to 48 psychiatric patients and as a group test to 56 nursing students. The intent was to compare performance on the two measures. It was hypothesized that if SD was operant on projective techniques, then Ss would show in TAT stories an SD tendency corresponding to that measured by the Edwards Scale. A rating scale for assessment of stories was developed, and ratings of two judges were pooled for each story to obtain an estimate of its social desirability. As the stimdus quality of the TAT picrure might affect desirability of the story told, pictures of varying mood or emotional tone were selected. Two pictures found previously (Dollin, 1960) to be happy were selected (2, 10); two neutral (1, 4 ) ; and two sad (3BM, 13MF). The possibility of an interaction was also considered, i.e., Ss with high SD scores might give socially desirable responses regardless of the picture's stimulus value. Less defensive Ss might be more realistic, acknowledging occurrence of unpleasant aspects of the stimulus. Four groups were formed on the basis of strength of SD tendency and analyses of the variance of story ratings by group and stimulus were made. Results.-While patients with different S D tendencies showed significant