Individual responses and social desirability.

Several investigations indicate that, for the average S, endorsement of personality inventory items has only a low to moderate correlation with social desirability (SD), unlike the case when probability of endorsement by a group is related to desirability. These studies have used point-biserial correlation for the individual and the product-moment coefficient for the group. When a single S's responses are analyzed in a way that permits estimation of probability of endorsement, the product-moment correlation between this probability and SD typically is high, approaching much closer to the group value. High average individual correlation between endorsement and desirability does not prevent a diagnostic scale from discriminating between disparate groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Applied Psychology is the property of American Psychological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)