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Results for “SOCIAL DESIRABILITY”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

The effect of social desirability and social approval on self-reports of physical activity.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine social desirability and social approval as sources of error in three self-reported physical activity assessments using objective measures of physical activity as reference measures. In 1997, women (n = 81) living in Worcester, Massachusetts, completed doubly labeled water measurements and wore an activity monitor for 14 days. They also completed seven interviewer-administered 24-hour physical activity recalls (PARs) and two different self-administered 7-day PARs. Measures of the personality traits "social desirability" and "social approval" were regressed on 1) the difference between physical activity energy expenditure estimated from doubly labeled water and each physical activity assessment instrument and 2) the difference between monitor-derived physical activity duration and each instrument. Social desirability was associated with overreporting of activity, resulting in overestimation of physical activity energy expenditure by 0.65 kcal/kg/day on the second 7-day PAR (95% confidence interval: 0.06, 1.25) and overestimation of activity durations by 4.15-11.30 minutes/day (both 7-day PARs). Social approval was weakly associated with underestimation of physical activity on the 24-hour PAR (-0.15 kcal/kg/day, 95% confidence interval: -0.30, 0.005). Body size was not associated with reporting bias in this study. The authors conclude that social desirability and social approval may influence self-reported physical activity on some survey instruments.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Speech anxiety as a multiplicative function of size of audience and social desirability.

Social impact theory, especially the constructs of importance and number of people present, have been useful in explaining the magnitude of speech anxiety experienced by speakers. In the present study, Crowne and Marlowe's social desirability construct was evaluated as an operational definition of importance. A multiple regression analysis indicated that speech anxiety is best explained by a multiplicative rather than a simple linear model, using size of audience and social desirability as independent variables for 50 speakers.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Gender differences in social desirability and social approval bias in dietary self-report.

Social desirability (the tendency to respond in such a way as to avoid criticism) and social approval (the tendency to seek praise) are two prominent response set biases evident in answers on structured questionnaires. These biases were tested by comparing nutrient intakes as estimated from a single 24-hour diet recall interview (24 HR) and a 7-day dietary recall (7DDR). Data were collected as part of the Worcester Area Trial for Counseling in Hyperlipidemia, a randomized, physician-delivered nutrition intervention trial for hypercholesterolemic patients conducted in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1991 to 1995. Of the 1,278 total study subjects, 759 had complete data for analysis. Men overestimated their fat and energy intakes on the 7DDR as compared with the 24HR according to social approval: One unit increase in the social approval score was associated with an overestimate of 21.5 kcal/day in total energy intake and 1.2 g/day in total fat intake. Women, however, underestimated their dietary intakes on the 7DDR relative to the 24HR according to social desirability: One unit increase in the social desirability score was associated with an underestimate of 19.2 kcal/day in energy intake and 0.8 g/day in total fat. The results from the present study indicate that social desirability and social approval biases appear to vary by gender. Such biases may lead to misclassification of dietary exposure estimates resulting in a distortion in the perceived relation between health-related outcomes and exposure to specific foods or nutrients. Because these biases may vary according to the perceived demands of research subjects, it is important that they be assessed in a variety of potential research study populations.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The effect of race/ethnicity and desirable social characteristics on physicians' decisions to prescribe opioid analgesics.

OBJECTIVE: Racial/ethnic disparities in physician treatment have been documented in multiple areas, including emergency department (ED) analgesia. The purpose of this study was to determine if physicians were predisposed to different treatment decisions based on patient race/ethnicity and if physicians' treatment predispositions changed when socially desirable information about the patient (occupation, socioeconomic status, and relationship with a primary care physician) was made explicit. METHODS: The authors developed three clinical vignettes designed to engage physicians' decision-making processes. The patient's race/ethnicity was included. Each vignette randomly included or omitted explicit socially desirable information. The authors mailed 5,750 practicing emergency physicians three clinical vignettes and a one-page questionnaire about demographic and practice characteristics. Chi-square tests of significance for bivariate analyses and multiple logistic regression were used for multivariate analyses. RESULTS: A total of 2,872 (53%) of the 5,398 potential physician subjects participated. Patient race/ethnicity had no effect on physician prescription of opioids at discharge for African Americans, Hispanics, and whites: absolute differences in rates of prescribing opioids at discharge were less than 2% for all three conditions presented. Making socially desirable information explicit increased the prescribing rates by 4% (95% CI = 0.1% to 8%) for the migraine vignette and 6% (95% CI = 3% to 8%) for the back pain vignette. CONCLUSIONS: Patient race/ethnicity did not influence physicians' predispositions to treatment plans in clinical vignettes. Even knowing that the patient had a high-prestige occupation and a primary care provider only minimally increased prescribing of opioid analgesics for conditions with few objective findings.

Analgesics, Opioid↗
PubMed2004

Social desirability and self-reports: testing models of socially desirable responding.

The present research investigated the cognitive processes involved in responding to self-report items under varying conditions of social desirability. Participants in three experiments judged the extent to which a set of items (personality traits in Experiments 1 and 2; behaviors in Experiment 3) described them under instructions that either increased or decreased concerns with social desirability. Under most conditions, instructions that produced the greatest concern with social desirability resulted in the longest response times. This finding is consistent with the view that social desirability operates as an editing process; participants retrieve the requested information and then evaluate it before responding. There was also some evidence for individual differences in social desirability; participants scoring high on the trait of self-deception were generally faster at making these judgments than were participants scoring low on self-deception.

Deception↗
PubMed1997

Response set of social desirability in relation to the Mental, Physical and Spiritual Well-Being Scale.

This study examined the relationship of the Mental, Physical and Spiritual Well-being Scale to the response set of social desirability. Social desirability was assessed by correlating the Mental, Physical and Spiritual Well-being Scale responses of 178 participants with scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Pearson product-moment correlations were not significant and indicated that the Mental, Physical and Spiritual Well-being Scale did not elicit socially desirable responses.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Social desirability and questioning children in dental research.

The influence of social desirability on the results of a social dental investigation was examined in a survey of 320 15-yr-old children. Children with a lower level of schooling seemed to be more inclined to give social desirable answers. It appeared that the stronger the social desirability, the more satisfaction children tended to show with their dentist, the less they said they were afraid of him, but, surprisingly, the less responsible they felt for their dental health. Other measures were not influenced by social desirability: dental hygiene, perception of the quality of one's own teeth, knowledge about dental health, sources of information, and evaluation of the dentist's behavior. Also independent of social desirability were the measures of the amount of fluid sugar consumed, the child's obesity, and the actual dental health (DMFS, degree of treatment, P.H.P.). Several aspects of the meaning of social desirability in dental research are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Social desirability bias in dietary self-report may compromise the validity of dietary intake measures.

BACKGROUND: Self-report of dietary intake could be biased by social desirability or social approval thus affecting risk estimates in epidemiological studies. These constructs produce response set biases, which are evident when testing in domains characterized by easily recognizable correct or desirable responses. Given the social and psychological value ascribed to diet, assessment methodologies used most commonly in epidemiological studies are particularly vulnerable to these biases. METHODS: Social desirability and social approval biases were tested by comparing nutrient scores derived from multiple 24-hour diet recalls (24HR) on seven randomly assigned days with those from two 7-day diet recalls (7DDR) (similar in some respects to commonly used food frequency questionnaires), one administered at the beginning of the test period (pre) and one at the end (post). Statistical analysis included correlation and multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Cross-sectionally, no relationships between social approval score and the nutritional variables existed. Social desirability score was negatively correlated with most nutritional variables. In linear regression analysis, social desirability score produced a large downward bias in nutrient estimation in the 7DDR relative to the 24HR. For total energy, this bias equalled about 50 kcal/point on the social desirability scale or about 450 kcal over its interquartile range. The bias was approximately twice as large for women as for men and only about half as large in the post measures. Individuals having the highest 24HR-derived fat and total energy intake scores had the largest downward bias due to social desirability. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a large downward bias in reporting food intake related to social desirability score. These results are consistent with the theoretical constructs on which the hypothesis is based. The effect of social desirability bias is discussed in terms of its influence on epidemiological estimates of effect. Suggestions are made for future work aimed at improving dietary assessment methodologies and adjusting risk estimates for this bias.

Bias↗
PubMed2005

Social desirability, psychological symptoms, and perceived health in burn injured patients.

Social desirability was previously seen as a nuisance in assessment, but today it is regarded as a personality trait with an influence on health. The aim was to explore relations between social desirability and health in former burn patients. Eighty-four burn patients injured on average 3.8 years ago responded to a questionnaire booklet. Social desirability was assessed with the social desirability subscale of the Swedish universities Scales of Personality, which is standardized in a normative sample. The results showed that a subgroup with high degree of social desirability displayed significantly poorer perceived health on the burn-specific health subscales heat sensitivity, work, and body image than normal responders did. There were no differences regarding age, education, injury-related variables, sick leave, or symptoms of anxiety and depression. In conclusion, participants with high social desirability were characterized by postburn problems in outdoor and work-related situations, and more self-consciousness about appearance.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

Assessing social desirability in family self-report.

This study focused on social desirability in family members' self-reports. 32 clinical families (93 family members) were given self-report measures from the McMaster and Circumplex family-assessment models and a measure of social desirability. Clinicians assessed these families on clinical rating scales from the same models. Regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between self-reports, social desirability scores, and clinicians' ratings. It was expected that social desirability would be a suppressor variable (i.e., when accounted for, the similarity between clinicians' and family members' ratings would be enhanced). This did not occur; instead, social desirability was significantly but negatively correlated with ratings of pathology. Results provide evidence that correcting for social desirability on clinical pencil-and-paper tests is not supported.

Adolescent↗