Date of Award

2012-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

James M. Wood

Abstract

Wiggins (1959) developed a social desirability scale which is one of the most valid measures of positive distortion response bias (PD) on the MMPI. The present study used Wiggins' methods to develop three PD measures for the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality-2 (SNAP-2; Clark, 2009). In Study One, 562 participants rated the items of the SNAP-2 on three dimensions: Social Desirability (SD), True of Self (TOS), or True of Other People in General (TPG). These ratings were used to construct two Wiggins-type Social Desirability Scales (WSD-A and WSD-B) from SNAP-2 items. In Study Two, 172 new participants took the full version of the SNAP-2. Eighty-five participants took the SNAP-2 according to the standard instructions, and the other 87 participants took it according to Positive Distortion instructions. It was found that the WSD scales constructed during the first part of the study (WSD-A and WSD-B) significantly distinguished between the two groups. During the course of Study 2, a third and final Wiggins-type social desirability scale was constructed (WSD-C). In Study Three, 169 new participants took the full version of the SNAP-2. Eighty-six participants took the SNAP-2 according to the standard instructions, and the other 83 participants took it according to Positive Distortion instructions. The three scales created in Studies 1 and 2 (WSD-A, WSD-B, WSD-C), all significantly discriminated between the two groups (Standard versus Positive Distortion Group). The WSD-C scale outperformed the other two scales (WSD-C) and the Rare Virtues scale, a measure of socially desirable responding that is currently included in the SNAP-2. It is suggested that the WSD-C scale be included as part of the SNAP-2 and used as a measure of positive distortion bias for that test.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

172 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Clinton Lee Prall

Included in

Psychology Commons

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