Social Desirability Tendencies Research Articles

AGEIST ATTITUDES AND PREPARATION AS INDIRECT PREDICTORS OF TRAINEES’ INTEREST IN CLINICAL WORK WITH OLDER ADULTS

Abstract The striking discrepancy between the number of older adults in need of mental healthcare and the small number of psychologists with specialized training in providing this care (Moye et al., 2019) underscores the importance of identifying modifiable factors that could increase psychology trainees’ interest in future clinical work with older adults. We tested a structural equation model specifying ageist attitudes and preparation regarding aging as having indirect effects on interest in working with older adults through three measures of perceived work with older adults. Doctoral trainees (N=187; age=22-43 years) in clinical/counseling psychology completed the Fraboni Scale of Ageism, a 10-point item assessing trainees’ perceptions of how well their program prepared them to work with older adults, the Working with Older Adults Scale (assessing perceptions of ease/difficulty of work, social approval for work, favorable evaluation of work, and interest in work), the Social Desirability Scale, and demographic items. Controlling for trainees’ age and social desirability tendencies, the model demonstrated good fit (CFI=.95, TLI=.94, RMSEA=.07). Significant indirect effects were found for ageist attitudes (p<.001) and preparation (p=.01) on interest. More ageist attitudes related significantly to greater perceived difficulty (p<.001), less favorable evaluations (p<.001), and less social approval (p=.02) regarding working with older adults, while greater preparation related only to less difficulty of working with older adults. Difficulty, social approval, and evaluation of work with older adults each significantly predicted interest (p<.001). Implementing training opportunities for trainees that aim to reduce ageist attitudes could increase interest in working with the older adult population.

"Everything Is Perfect, and We Have No Problems": Detecting and Limiting Social Desirability Bias in Qualitative Research.

Many qualitative research studies acknowledge the possibility of social desirability bias (a tendency to present reality to align with what is perceived to be socially acceptable) as a limitation that creates complexities in interpreting findings. Drawing on experiences conducting interviews and focus groups in rural Ethiopia, this article provides an empirical account of how one research team developed and employed strategies to detect and limit social desirability bias. Data collectors identified common cues for social desirability tendencies, relating to the nature of the responses given and word choice patterns. Strategies to avoid or limit bias included techniques for introducing the study, establishing rapport, and asking questions. Pre-fieldwork training with data collectors, regular debriefing sessions, and research team meetings provided opportunities to discuss social desirability tendencies and refine approaches to account for them throughout the research. Although social desirability bias in qualitative research may be intractable, it can be minimized.

Modeling of variables related to problematic social media usage: Social desirability tendency example.

Social media usage has been popular for the last decade. Individuals use their social media environments for various reasons such as to socialize, play games, have fun and share posts. Overuse of these environments may lead to negative psychological and behavioral consequences for individuals. Additionally, it increases the worries about potential addicted/problematic use of social media. In this study, it is aimed to determine the level of problematic social media usage of participants who are active social media users and to analyze the relationships between problematic social media usage and various personal characteristics and social variables. Study in relational screening model is carried out with the participation of 580 volunteers. Partial least squares (PLS) structural equationmodeling is used to analyze the data obtained through various scale according to the research model. The structural equationmodeling analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between problematic social media usage and the daily time of social media usage, the use of frequency of social media for recognition, publicity, communication/interaction and education, loneliness, and social anxiety. The variable which shows higher correlation between problematic social media usage is social anxiety.

Decisional Procrastination: Assessing Characterological and Contextual Variables around Indecision

University students (n = 75; M age = 21.4 years old) and community adults (n = 55: M age = 36.6 years old) completed self-reported measures of decisional procrastination (indecision), character (life satisfaction, meaningful life, and need for cognition), context (place attachment, sense of community, and psychological home) and “cross-over” factors relating character and context (self-identity with possessions, people/thing orientation, and clutter), to provide an ecological understanding of persons who claim indecision. Controlling for social desirability tendencies, indecision was negatively related to all character but none of the context variables. Indecision also was related to both person and thing orientation and clutter. Multiple regression analysis indicated that only need for cognition significantly predicted (negatively) indecision among character, context, and cross-over variable sets. Subjective well-being also predicted indecision with low need for cognition among cross-over variables. Taken together, decisional procrastinators reported too much clutter (stuff), interfering with a positive quality of life and related to character over context and cross-over, ecological variables.

Personality as Predictor of Religious Commitment and Spiritual Beliefs: Comparing Catholic Deacons and Men in Formation

ABSTRACTRoman Catholic deacons (n = 1,349) and deacon candidates (n = 202), completed online measures of personality dimensions (i.e., HEXACO-60), religious commitment, spiritual transcendence beliefs, social desirability, and demographic variables. Social desirability tendencies did not impact responding for deacons or candidates. For candidates and deacons, honesty–humility and extraversion personality dimensions were significant predictors of religious commitment, and extraversion and openness to experience were significant predictors of spiritual beliefs of connectedness to others. Moreover, for deacons but not candidates, all personality dimensions significantly predicted at least one religiosity or spiritual belief. Implications for Catholic deacons and candidates for ordination are discussed.

Rape-related cognitive distortions: Preliminary findings on the role of early maladaptive schemas

Despite the important focus on the notion of cognitive distortions in the sexual offending area, the relevance of underlying cognitive schemas in sexual offenders has also been suggested. The aim of the present study was to investigate a potential relationship between Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMSs) and cognitive distortions in rapists. A total of 33 men convicted for rape completed the Bumby Rape Scale (BRS), the Young Schema Questionnaire — Short form-3 (YSQ-S3), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the Socially Desirable Response Set Measure (SDRS-5). Results showed a significant relationship between the impaired limits schematic domain and the Justifying Rape dimension of the BRS. Specifically, after controlling for psychological distress levels and social desirability tendency, the entitlement/grandiosity schema from the impaired limits domain was a significant predictor of cognitive distortions related to Justifying Rape themes. Overall, despite preliminary, there is some evidence that the Young's Schema-Focused model namely the impaired limits dimension may contribute for the conceptualization of cognitive distortions in rapists and further investigation is recommended.

Together we are strong: Explicit and implicit paranormal beliefs predict performance in a knowledge test of paranormal phenomena better than explicit beliefs alone

The belief in paranormal phenomena is a frequently studied topic. Studies predominantly assess explicit (i.e., conscious) parts of paranormal belief (PB) using questionnaire-based self-report measures which are prone to impression management and social desirability tendencies. In order to investigate the usefulness of measuring implicit (i.e., automatic) PB, we developed a PB Implicit Association Test (PB-IAT). Implicit PB was uncorrelated with explicit PB, but moderated the relationship between explicit PB and participants’ knowledge of paranormal phenomena. Participants with a weak implicit PB did not differ in their knowledge scores regardless of whether they had strong or weak explicit PB. But participants with strong implicit PB had higher scores when they also had strong explicit PB compared to participants with weak explicit PB. These results suggest that discrepant configurations of PB impair performance in a knowledge test about paranormal phenomena.

An Inkblot for the Implicit Assessment of Personality: The Semantic Misattribution Procedure

Misattributions people make about their own reaction to ambiguous stimuli can be used to measure personality self–concepts implicitly. On the basis of a semantic misattribution priming paradigm [semantic misattribution procedure (SMP)], we assessed the implicit personality self–concept related to three dimensions included in the Big–Five model: conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion. Across three studies (N1 = 98, N2 = 140, and N3 = 135), the SMP was robustly related, in the expected direction, to individual differences in self–reported personality questionnaires and managed to predict both self–reported and objectively measured behaviours. The main advantage of SMP over classical explicit measures of personality is its higher resistance to social desirability tendencies, although its psychometric properties are somewhat lower than those pertaining to explicit measures of personality. Finally, comparisons of our results with studies that used other implicit measures of personality self–concept indicate that the SMP has higher criterion validity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social Desirability in Virtual Communities

As virtual worlds and social media in general become important settings for marketing actions, we need to know what is the weight of social norms within such contexts. To what degree can a researcher expect that the answers obtained within a virtual world – ultimately a social network – reflect real opinions and are not inflated by social desirability? Does the social context of an online community induce higher social desirability? This paper investigates whether social desirability is stronger within virtual world online communities than in the real world, observing same structural relationship among measured constructs but higher social desirability tendency in the virtual world compared to the real life. Since social networks and online communities will be more often used as research and communication platforms, increased attention needs to be paid to the social desirability tendency of the community members.

How to be good (or bad): On the fakeability of dehumanization and prejudice against outgroups

According to infrahumanization theory, people ascribe outgroups lesser humanity than their ingroup. Infrahumanization has been proposed as a relatively subtle and indirect form of emotional prejudice. We tested this assumption further in an experiment during which participants were asked to take on the perspective of a prejudiced or a nonprejudiced person or received no such instruction before completing a questionnaire that included measures of dehumanization and explicit prejudice. Results showed that whereas the infrahumanization effect was unbiased by faking instructions, participants readily faked their responses on the more direct measure of prejudice. The results support the notion that infrahumanization represents a rather indirect form of discrimination that is less prone to social desirability tendencies than other self-report measures of prejudice. Moreover, our findings point to the importance of emotion valence in the context of infrahumanizing others. Implications of our findings will be disussed.

Social Desirability in Virtual Communities

As virtual worlds and social media in general become important settings for marketing actions, we need to know what is the weight of social norms within such contexts. To what degree can a researcher expect that the answers obtained within a virtual world – ultimately a social network – reflect real opinions and are not inflated by social desirability? Does the social context of an online community induce higher social desirability? This paper investigates whether social desirability is stronger within virtual world online communities than in the real world, observing same structural relationship among measured constructs but higher social desirability tendency in the virtual world compared to the real life. Since social networks and online communities will be more often used as research and communication platforms, increased attention needs to be paid to the social desirability tendency of the community members.

The Role of Goal Orientation in Emerging Adult Identity Processing Styles

Universities are considered to be settings for students to develop and transform themselves during emerging adulthood. A total of 1,236 university students (774 women, 462 men; M age = 21.54 years, SD age = 5.23 years) participated in a study examining the relation between students' identity processing style and goal orientation. Results indicated that an information-oriented identity style was associated with a mastery goal orientation, whereas a normative-oriented identity processing style was predictive of a greater concern with performance goals. The diffusion/avoidant identity style was not strongly related to any goal orientation. In addition, results showed that students in their junior or senior year in school (independent of social desirability tendencies) were more often classified as information oriented in their identity style compared with students in their freshman or sophomore year in school.

Mentors in life and at school: impact on undergraduate prote´ge´ perceptions of university mission and values

University undergraduates (84 women, 80 men: M age=19.1 years old) reported school mission and value perceptions, life and/or school mentor relationships, and social desirability tendencies. No significant social desirability effect was obtained. Prote´ge´s with mentors at school and in life (n=52) reported greater cognitive and informational support but equal rates of emotional and tangible support plus modeling of appropriate behaviors as prote´ge´s with mentors from life alone (n=55). Furthermore, prote´ge´s with a mentor in life and at school stated stronger perceptions of their institution's educational mission, a greater sense of campus altruism, and a commitment to lifelong engagement in education than prote´ge´s with mentors from life alone or students with no mentor (n=48). Implications for developing school‐based mentorship initiatives which augment life‐based mentor programs may enhance student understanding of a university's mission and its values are discussed.

The Illness Management Survey: identifying adolescents' perceptions of barriers to adherence.

To develop a self-report measure of barriers to adherence and to evaluate its reliability and validity in a sample of adolescents with asthma. The Illness Management Survey (IMS) was developed through item generation, expert panel review, and focus group administration. Adolescents with asthma (N = 152) completed the measure. Participants reported on perceived drawbacks to medication, risk-taking behavior, and social desirability tendencies. Providers rated adolescents' illness severity and adherence. Reliability and validity of the IMS were assessed, and factor structure was examined. The 27-item IMS shows high internal consistency (alpha =.87). Scores correlate with perceived medication drawbacks, risk taking, and self- and provider reports of adherence. Principal-components analysis indicates five domains of barriers, accounting for 52.4% of the variance: disease/regimen issues, cognitive difficulties, lack of social support/lack of self-efficacy, denial/distrust, and peer/family issues. Preliminary data indicate that the IMS reliably and validly assesses perceived barriers to adherence within this sample of adolescents with asthma. It shows promise as a tool for identifying subgroups of nonadherent adolescents.

Distorted attitudes and perceptions, and their relationship with self-esteem and coping in child molesters.

Two studies were conducted to compare various aspects of child molesters, non-sexual offenders, and community-based nonoffenders. These studies were aimed at examining some implications of our general model of sexual offending. Study 1 compared the responses of these 3 groups on measures of self-esteem, attitudes toward women and children, and social desirability tendencies. The only observed difference was that child molesters had significantly lower self-esteem than did the other 2 groups. In Study 2, child molesters displayed more cognitive distortions about sex between adults and children than did nonsexual offenders or nonoffenders. However in this study child molesters scored in the same range as the other participants on self-esteem and the tendency to use sex as a way of coping with problems. The results are discussed in terms of the differences between the present findings and earlier studies, and their implications for future research.

Coping in Intimate Relationships: Development of the Multidimensional Intimate Coping Questionnaire

Psychological correlates of the use of coping strategies in intimate relationships were investigated through the development of an objective self-report instrument, the Multidimensional Intimate Coping Questionnaire (MICQ). Preliminary results indicated that the 25 MICQ subscales had high internal consistency, that the subscales were uncontaminated by social desirability tendencies, that several demographic variables predicted the use of MICQ intimate coping strategies, and that the MICQ subscales were associated in predictable ways with other general measures of coping. Other findings revealed that several personality tendencies were related to specific coping tendencies: relational esteem was associated with positive, active coping strategies; relational depression was associated with avoidant strategies and self-criticism; relational obsession was associated with emotion-focused strategies and suppression of competing activities in order to focus on the relationship issue; relational consciousness was associated with problem-focused strategies and emotional expression; relational monitoring was associated with denial, wishful thinking and mental disengagement from the relation-ship issue; and relational anxiety was correlated with emotional expression coupled with self-criticism and attempts to disengage from the problem. Adult attachment style and gender also influenced coping tendencies. The MICQ represents a comprehensive approach to the study of coping in intimate relationships.

"If You Can'T Say Something Nice"

Analysis of several data sets suggests that when "don't know" is used as an option in an evaluation of others, the number of omitted items may correlate negatively with the summated evaluation. When present, this variation of social desirability or nonrandom tendency toward item nonresponse has the potential to bias results. Measures are suggested to both detect and control for this tendency.

The multidimensional sexuality questionnaire: An objective self-report measure of psychological tendencies associated with human sexuality

The purpose of the present investigation was to develop and validate an objective self-report instrument, the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ), designed to measure psychological tendencies associated with sexual relationships. Results indicated that the MSQ subscales had high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and were largely independent of social desirability tendencies. Other results indicated that women and men responded in unique ways to the MSQ, with women reporting greater sexual-fear and men reporting greater sexual-esteem, sexual-preoccupation, sexual-motivation, sexual-assertiveness, and external-sexual-control. Additional evidence for the concurrent, discriminant, and convergent validity of the MSQ was found: the MSQ was associated not only with women's and men's sexual attitudes and their exchange and communal approaches to sexual relations, but also with their scores on other instruments conceptually similar to the MSQ. Men's and women's sexual behaviors were also predictably related to their scores on the MSQ subscales. The discussion focuses on research and applied uses of the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire.

Social desirability response tendencies in psychiatric inpatient children.

This study examined the substantive features of children's social desirability (SD) tendencies that could influence the nature and severity of psychopathology. Examinations of substantive features of SD responding in an inpatient child psychiatry unit (N = 76) suggested that higher scores on the Children's Social Desirability questionnaire were associated strongly with (1) lower mental age; (2) higher scores on self-reported social competence; (3) lower scores on self-reported anger; and (4) lower scores on parent-reported externalization behavioral disturbance. Results were interpreted as suggesting that SD responding for child inpatients may reflect a mixed picture of negative features of cognitive and social immaturity that could affect adversely their ability to judge their own and others' social behavior and of positive features of less external behavioral disturbance and more prosocial attitudes and behaviors.

Imaginary Audience Behavior: A Validation Study

A revalidation study of the Elkind and Bowen Imaginary Audience Behavior (IAS) scale was undertaken using junior and senior high school adolescents from a consolidated rural school district. A total of 115 male and female adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 years of age responded to the imaginary audience instrument, an empathy scale, a social sensitivity test, and a measure of social desirability tendencies. Reliability and construct validity were established for the IAS instrument. Although the results varied from the original validation study, age comparisons revealed a linear relationship between age and selfconsciousness. The relationship between age, imaginary audience behavior and self-reported concerns about body image during adolescence questions certain assumptions underlying the development of the Imaginary Audience Behavior scale.