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The Role of Social Desirability in the Assessment of Personality Constructs

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Problems and Solutions in Human Assessment

Abstract

Social desirability has had a checkered history in personality assessment. Its role has ranged from one of several “response styles” (Jackson & Messick, 1958) to being the focus of entire symposia, books (Berg, 1967), and heated debates in the literature. It has a comparatively short history as a personality characteristic, first coming to prominence in the 1950s in the work of Allen L. Edwards (1953, 1957). Since then, its popularity in the literature has waxed and waned, although social desirability retains an unusual position within personality assessment. This uncertainty as to its status as a legitimate attribute worthy of study is in part because of its history but also because of its inherent nature as a construct. To some, it is a source of irrelevant error on a test that should be minimized if not eliminated. To others, it is a meaningful construct in its own right (Crowne, 1979). Of course, these two positions are not mutually exclusive, which leads to the conceptual difficulties over the nature of social desirability. This chapter will not attempt to unravel all of the links of social desirability. I will concentrate here upon its role in the development of personality instruments. Of necessity, this will lead to some discussion of its nature as a construct. To do that, only some of the relevant history needs to be understood. This discussion will not incorporate the perspective that views social desirability as synonymous with “faking good” (Furnham, 1986), but will be more in keeping with Jackson’s narrower definition that corresponds closely with the working definitions of Edwards. These definitions are elaborated upon later in the chapter, but at this point it is worth noting that both are pragmatic working definitions. Neither Jackson nor Edwards provided full definitions of social desirability, but instead relied upon the consensual meaning of the term in the English language and the operational definition of the concept in the scales that were developed to measure social desirability.

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  1. Edward Helmes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Western Ontario, Canada

    Richard D. Goffin

  2. Edith Cowan University, Australia

    Edward Helmes

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Helmes, E. (2000). The Role of Social Desirability in the Assessment of Personality Constructs. In: Goffin, R.D., Helmes, E. (eds) Problems and Solutions in Human Assessment. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4397-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4397-8_2

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