Control For Social Desirability Research Articles

Eating behavior in Portuguese higher education students: The effect of social desirability

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to relate social desirability with eating behavior dimensions among higher education students in Portugal, and to assess the effect of social desirability on the association between pairs of eating behavior dimensions. MethodsData from 266 higher education students (62.8% women) aged between 18 and 27 y were evaluated. Social desirability and several eating behavior dimensions (emotional and external eating, flexible and rigid restraint, binge eating, and eating self-efficacy) were assessed. ResultsIn both women and men, social desirability showed negative associations with emotional, external, and binge eating, and positive associations with eating self-efficacy. For the majority of the correlations, the control for social desirability led to a decrease in the strength of the association: Social desirability showed a greater effect on the associations between external and binge eating, external eating and eating self-efficacy, binge eating and eating self-efficacy, and emotional and external eating. ConclusionThis study demonstrated that social desirability should be considered when assessing the dimensions of eating behavior, namely eating self-efficacy and dimensions related to overeating.

Modification of motivational interviewing for use with people with mild intellectual disability and challenging behaviour

Background Motivational interviewing is a promising method to increase treatment motivation for people with mild intellectual disability and challenging behaviour. The purpose of the present study was to identify how professionals could adapt motivational interviewing techniques for use with clients.Method We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews and focus groups with 26 clients, parents, and professionals. A general inductive approach led to the identification of multiple core themes.Results The authors recommend several modifications to accommodate motivational interviewing for use with clients: adapt to language level, adjust to cognitive abilities, and control for social desirability of responding. In addition, certain characteristics of professionals were also found to be critical for effective motivational interviewing: trustworthiness, engagement, acceptance, empathy, and honesty.Conclusions Concrete recommendations for the adaptation of the motivational interviewing techniques for use with people with mild intellectual disability and challenging behaviour are identified. Certain characteristics of professionals are also critical for maximising the treatment motivation of clients.

Self-reported mental problems in boys and girls: Preliminary findings

Previous research has reported higher frequency in boys than in girls of all psychopathological categories in childhood, and a reversal of the genders' ratio for adolescence and onwards. All studies about childhood mental health are based on referral by adults. The present study evaluated the prevalence of psychopathology in three age groups in childhood and adolescence, in both genders, using a new self-report scale of mental health problems for children and adolescents. Social desirability was measured separately. Five hundred sixteen school children in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades were tested. Using the total mental health score, the study found that boys reported more disorders than girls in the two younger age groups, while the reverse was found in the oldest one. However, when social desirability was statistically controlled, the reversal phenomenon disappeared. In separate analyses of the subscales it was found that boys report more behavior problems, girls report more emotional problems in the youngest and oldest age groups, and both genders report an equal amount of school maladjustment. The results are discussed with regard to the importance of self-report and the control of social desirability.

The control of social desirability in personality inventories: A study using the principal-factor deletion technique

The present study sought to investigate Paulhus' (1981) principal-factor deletion technique (PFDT), a factor analytic method for controlling for socially desirable responding. Adult subjects ( N = 330) responded to both forms of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and a 32-item lie scale. Peer ratings of extraversion and neuroticism served as criterion measures. The factor deleted by PFDT more closely reflected neuroticism than impression management. Factors resulting from PFDT were considerably less valid and less content saturated than those emerging from an ordinary factor solution. The implications of these results are discussed from the perspectives of predictive and construct validity.

Control of social desirability in personality inventories: Principal-factor deletion

Rational and statistical techniques for controlling social desirability (SD) in scales derived from self-report inventories are reviewed. The principal-factor deletion technique is explained in detail. It is applied during factor analysis when derived content scales are expected to be tainted with SD. If one principal factor is found to represent social desirability, the implicated factor is dropped and the communalities adjusted before the remaining factors are rotated to a desired simple structure criterion. Subscales derived from resulting factors are free of SD bias. Principal-factor deletion is compared with other approaches including rational techniques, covariate procedures, and target rotation.

The Work Preference Questionnaire: a measure of managerial need for achievement

Few existing measures of need for achievement are suitable for use on British managerial populations. This is because most scales fail on one or more of four criteria of acceptability: managerial standardization, industrial acceptability, control for social desirability and faking responses, and psychometric adequacy. The construction of an achievement motive measure, the Work Preference Questionnaire (WPQ), is described, which attempts to meet these criteria. The scale is in forced‐choice format comprising 24 pairs of statements each pair matched for social desirability, and logically related. The items are written in terms of hypothetical boss and organizational practices which have been chosen to represent various aspects of achievement motive theory and research findings. The WPQ shows satisfactory internal consistency on two managerial populations, and fairly good stability over a 12‐month period. There is no correlation with age. Concurrent, construct and criterion validity findings are presented, and also evidence of the scale's resistance to social desirability and faking influences.

Ethnic stereotyping by men and women.

The influence of sex in stereotyping has received little attention in previous research. Most studies were probably confounded with social desirability. The present investigation analyzed effects of sex under control for social desirability. Results indicated that women stereotype less than men. This may corroborate the often repeated finding that women are internally or emotionally motivated, whereas men respond more readily to external cues.

Control for social desirability in the trait evaluation index.

Summary The Trait Evaluation Index supposedly controls for social desirability of the alternatives in each triad by using forced-choice methodology. This claim was tested using 63 Ss asked to select the most desirable alternative in each triad. With a significant Chi-Square for an item interpreted as lack of control for desirability, 77% of the items yielded significant Chi-Squares.

Control for social desirability in the Thorndike dimensions of temperament.

Control for social desirability in the Thorndike dimensions of temperament.

A Control for Social Desirability in a Semantic Differential

A control for social desirability was introduced into a semantic differential appropriate for describing person concepts. The modified instrument consisted of 18 scales balanced for SD and four unbalanced evaluative scales as marker items. Two subject groups, 52 psychiatric patients and 40 non‐patients, described a doctor, a patient and myself. Data from each group yielded six orthogonal factors, with evaluative factors loaded primarily on the four unbalanced scales. Comparisons of factor structure by group and by concept showed much less factorial correspondence between these English‐speaking groups, and a higher degree of subject‐concept‐scale interaction, than is usually found with the semantic differential. Control for SD seems to make the scales more sensitive to subject and situational differences.

The control of social desirability: a comparison of three different Q sorts and a check list, all composed of the same items.

The control of social desirability: a comparison of three different Q sorts and a check list, all composed of the same items.

The Control of Social Desirability in a Structured Q-Sort pn Dependency-Independency

The Control of Social Desirability in a Structured Q-Sort pn Dependency-Independency