Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1979. / Bibliography: leaves [100]-104. / Microfiche. / v, 104 leaves 29 cm

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on June 19, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-68). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1961. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-57).

D. Phil. (Industrial Psychology) / This study focused on the measurement of social desirability from a cross-cultural perspective. In applied settings industrial psychologists use social desirability scales to eliminate sources of bias or systematic error that are not relevant to the measured attribute, to identify applicants who are deliberately presenting themselves in a positive manner, to adjust personality scale scores or to flag potentially invalid personality profiles. Socially desirable responding on personality measures continues to be an important concern for researchers and practitioners due to the potentially serious consequences of response distortion in personnel selection contexts. The effect of socially desirable responding on the validity and utility of personality testing in employment settings has been extensively debated and researched internationally. However, depending on the operational definition of social desirability used and the choice of research design, research results have been mixed and at times contradictory. In addition, there is growing recognition that the cross-cultural transferability of the social desirability construct needs to be empirically examined. Furthermore, the influence of potential race and ethnic group differences in social desirability scale scores, which can lead to disproportional selection ratios, has not been sufficiently researched in South Africa. This study therefore focused on the systematic analysis of theoretical and scientific evidence relating to socially desirable responding in occupational settings across different cultures and across different personality instruments currently in use in South Africa.

Self-evaluations are typically performed in the workplace in order to apportion rewards, judge suitability for promotions and to assign people to appropriate roles. However, people adapt their representations of the self to their circumstances so much so that self-evaluations, as a true reflection of a person’s performance or character, are often of little worth. Assuming honest and sincere rather than manipulated feedback in the workplace is better for achieving business objectives, this research describes hypothesised key drivers of self-presentation behaviour and contributes towards improving the design of self-evaluation instruments. A theoretical model of self-presentation behaviour was constructed, drawing on theory of social desirability bias, impression management and accountability, that proposes anticipation of two distinct characteristics of an audience, power to reward and knowledge of the dimensions being assessed, cause the self-presenting individual to adapt their representations of themselves in specific and predictable ways. A quasi-experiment was performed, using a sample of 278 MBA students allocated to four groups, on the effects of audience anticipation on self-reporting on the dimensions of performance and personality. Statistical pair-wise comparisons of means in experimental groups and principal components analysis verified the theoretical model. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This thesis deals with the conjoint analysis in the context of the possibilities for its use in social science research. The mentioned method is introduced in detail and the text covers both the historical development and statistical background of each type of this analysis. Following practical part of thesis deals with the ability to overcome some typical data validity issues such as social desirability and order effect. Hypotheses, formulated on the basis of literature, are being tested using data obtained from split ballot experiment by comparing outcomes of conjoint analysis with those obtained with conventional rating scales. As the main topic of the conducted study is measuring preferences within individual aspects of ideal job, analysis no surprisingly identifies the salary as the most important attribute, but besides this, conjoint analysis shows potential for being more resistant to the order effect than the standard rating scales.

Respond bias has always been a risk when it comes to interpreting personality data. For this reason two social desirability measures were created to combat this problem during research and workplace application. The first of these measures is the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale created to measure a need for approval. The second of these measures is Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, which stems from a theory that describes social desirability as both a deception towards others and towards the self. For either of these measures to be usable, however, they need to be reliable and valid. This study then is intended to validate these two instruments in a diverse South African population sample and to look at the reliability of the items in these instruments and their factor structure. The objective of this study was to investigate both of these measures and to determine their psychometric properties and how they compare to the theory in literature. A convenient and purposive sample of N = 359 individuals from across South Africa was contacted via electronic means and asked to partake in this study. A questionnaire survey was forwarded to them with the intention of measuring social desirability. This included both the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) and Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) measure. In addition a demographical questionnaire was included (gender, race, language group and age). The statistical analysis was done via the SPSS program during data examination: descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (with Maximum Likelihood as extraction method), Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and product-moment correlations were conducted. The results of this analysis indicated that although these measures are widely accepted and used internationally, the full version of both the measures is not valid and reliable within this South African sample. Although not all items from the scales could be validated, there were items that indicated very acceptable psychometric properties. Various recommendations were made for the context of using these measures to ascertain an individual’s response bias and for future research. A person attempting to use these measures should only focus on using the reliable items from this study. These items could be applied in developing a shortened version of these measures. It is recommended that further research into these measures could be done by using a traditional paper-and pencil format, a larger sample or by focusing on a specific population group within South Africa. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Respond bias has always been a risk when it comes to interpreting personality data. For this reason two social desirability measures were created to combat this problem during research and workplace application. The first of these measures is the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale created to measure a need for approval. The second of these measures is Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, which stems from a theory that describes social desirability as both a deception towards others and towards the self. For either of these measures to be usable, however, they need to be reliable and valid. This study then is intended to validate these two instruments in a diverse South African population sample and to look at the reliability of the items in these instruments and their factor structure. The objective of this study was to investigate both of these measures and to determine their psychometric properties and how they compare to the theory in literature. A convenient and purposive sample of N = 359 individuals from across South Africa was contacted via electronic means and asked to partake in this study. A questionnaire survey was forwarded to them with the intention of measuring social desirability. This included both the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) and Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) measure. In addition a demographical questionnaire was included (gender, race, language group and age). The statistical analysis was done via the SPSS program during data examination: descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (with Maximum Likelihood as extraction method), Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and product-moment correlations were conducted. The results of this analysis indicated that although these measures are widely accepted and used internationally, the full version of both the measures is not valid and reliable within this South African sample. Although not all items from the scales could be validated, there were items that indicated very acceptable psychometric properties. Various recommendations were made for the context of using these measures to ascertain an individual’s response bias and for future research. A person attempting to use these measures should only focus on using the reliable items from this study. These items could be applied in developing a shortened version of these measures. It is recommended that further research into these measures could be done by using a traditional paper-and pencil format, a larger sample or by focusing on a specific population group within South Africa. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Skönmålning i personlighetstest, vilka ofta används som urvalsmetod vid rekrytering är ett stort problem. Skönmålade svar och orealistiska resultat kan leda till felaktiga beslut och misslyckade rekryteringar. Detta examensarbete var skrivet inom ramen för ett forskningsprojekt "Studier avseende ett nytt svenskt arbetspsykologiskt test Understanding Personal Potential (UPP)". UPP-testets konstruktör hävdar att testet reducerar över 90% av effekten av skönmålning (Sjöberg, 2015). Syftet med den föreliggande studien var att undersöka om UPP-testet kan genomskåda skönmålning. Studien hade en experimentell design och genomfördes 2011-2012. Av 60 personer som rekryterades till studien genomförde 48 UPP-testet vid två tillfällen; majoriteten var studenter i kursen Human Factors ur ett individperspektiv vid Högskolan Väst. Vid första testtillfället uppmanades deltagarna att svara ärligt på testets frågor. Vid andra testtillfället var uppgiften att försöka framställa sig själva så bra som möjligt för att kunna få sitt drömjobb. Ett beroende t-test användes för att mäta medelvärdesskillnader i samtliga skalor mellan dessa två tillfällen. Resultatet visade att UPP-testet inte klarade av att korrigera skönmålning på ett effektivt sätt. I 15 av 24 skalor hade medelvärdesskillnader mellan poängvärdena från det första och det andra tillfället en stor eller måttlig effekt d. Resultaten är svåra att diskutera i förhållande till tidigare forskning, eftersom tidigare studier om UPP-testet inte har genomgått en kollegial granskning (eng. peer review) och ofta är svårtolkade. Resultaten diskuteras i relation till tidigare forskning om alternativa sätt att "komma åt" skönmålningsproblemet. / Social desirability in personality tests which are often used as the selection method for recruitment is a big problem. Faked responses and unrealistic results can lead to wrong decisions and unsuccessful recruitment. This thesis was written in the context of a research project "Studies on a new Swedish labor psychological test Understanding Human Potential (UPP)". The author of the UPP test claims that the test reduces over 90% of the effect of social desirability (Sjöberg, 2015). The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the UPP test can detect social desirability. The study had an experimental design and was conducted in 2011-2012. Out of the 60 people who were recruited to the study, 48 took the UPP test on two occasions; the majority were students in the course Human Factors from an individual perspective at University West. At the first test session the participants were asked to honestly answer the test questions. At the second test session they were asked to try to portray themselves as good as possible in order to get their dream job. A paired samples t-test was used to measure the mean difference in all scales between these two occasions. The results showed that the UPP test was not able to correct for social desirability effectively. In 15 of the 24 scales the mean difference between the scores from the first and the second rounds had a large or moderate effect (d). The results are difficult to discuss in relation to previous research because previous studies on the UPP test are not peer reviewed and are often difficult to interpret. The results are discussed in relation to previous research on alternative ways to "get at" the problem of social desirability.