Investigating the Influence of Social Desirability on Personality Factor Structure

• Published in: Journal of applied psychology Vol. 86; no. 1; pp. 122 - 133
• Main Authors: Ellingson, Jill E, Smith, D. Brent, Sackett, Paul R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01.02.2001
• Subjects: Adult; Applied psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Factor Structure; Factor structures; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Job performance; Male; Methodology. Experimentation; Organizations; Personality; Personality measurement; Personality Measures; Personality tests; Personnel Selection; Psychological factors; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics. Statistics. Methodology; Social approval; Social Desirability; Social research; Studies; Human; Factor analysis; Methodology; Scientific research; Methodological bias; Personality; Social desirability; Descriptive statistics
• ISSN: 0021-9010; 1939-1854
• DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.122

This study provides a comprehensive investigation into whether social desirability alters the factor structure of personality measures. The study brought together 4 large data sets wherein different organizational samples responded to different personality measures. This facilitated conducting 4 separate yet parallel investigations. Within each data set, individuals identified through a social desirability scale as responding in an honest manner were grouped together, and individuals identified as responding in a highly socially desirable manner were grouped together. Using various analyses, the fit of higher order factor structure models was compared across the 2 groups. Results were the same for each data set. Social desirability had little influence on the higher order factor structures that characterized the relationships among the scales of the personality measures.