Social desirability effects on measures of adjustment to university, independence from parents, and self-efficacy
✍ Scribed by Naida A. Silverthorn; William L. Gekoski
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 503 KB
- Volume
- 51
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0021-9762
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Results of regression analyses on data from 96 first-year undergraduates indicated that social desirability (Jackson and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scales), particularly scores on the Jackson scale, is related strongly to scores on measures of adjustment (Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire), self-efficacy (Hale-Fibel Generalized Expectation for Success Scale), and independence (Psychological Separation Inventory) from mother, but not from father. In addition, both the Jackson and Marlowe-Crowne scales were correlated highry. Independence from parents and self-efficacy each continued to show a relationship with adjustment to university after social desirability effects were removed. Failure to remove the effect(s) of social desirability from the present measures is likely to lead to inflated estimates of their relation to each other or to other measures.
The results reported here are taken from a larger study that examined how stress from parental pressure, independence from parents, and self-efficacy predicted different aspects of adjustment t o university in first-year university students (Silverthorn, 1993). In designing that study, it was clear that response biases related to social desirability were relevant and might well cloud our ability t o identify relations among the variables of interest.
Social desirability generally is viewed as a tendency for respondents to respond to personality test items in a manner that presents themselves in a positive light (Holden & Fekken, 1989). Three of the most common measures are the Jackson Social Desirability Scale from the Personality Research Form (Jackson, 1984), Edwards' Social Desirability Scale (Edwards, 1957), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). Holden and Fekken (1989) report a factor analytic study of these three measures of social desirability, in which two separate dimensions emerged; the Jackson and Edwards items tended to load on one and the Marlowe-Crowne item on the other. Holden and Fekken describe the first factor as a "Sense of Own General Capability," which focuses on how one perceives oneself, and the second as "Interpersonal Sensitivity," which has more emphasis on concerns about how one is perceived by other people.
Any self-report measure may be affected by social desirability biases; those included in our study of how stress from parental pressure, independence from parents, and selfefficacy predicted different aspects of adjustment in first-year university students are no exception. The Psychological Separation Inventory (Hoffman, 1984) is designed to measure independence from parents. Respondents are asked to rate 69 statements for each parent on a scale of 1 (not at all true of me) to 5 (very true of me). Four subscale scores are obtained for each parent: functional, emotional, conflictual, and attitudinal independence (Hoffman, 1984).