Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2012 Jul;103(1):158-75. doi: 10.1037/a0028165. Epub 2012 May 7.
Past studies of socially desirable self-reports on the items of personality measures have found inconsistent effects of the response bias on the measures' predictive validities, with some studies reporting small effects and other studies reporting large effects. Using Monte Carlo methods, we evaluated various models of socially desirable responding by systematically adding predetermined amounts of the bias to the simulated personality trait scores of hypothetical test respondents before computing test-criterion validity correlations. Our study generally supported previous findings that have reported relatively minor decrements in criterion prediction, even with personality scores that were massively infused with desirability bias. Furthermore, the response bias failed to reveal itself as a statistical moderator of test validity or as a suppressor of validity. Large differences between some respondents' obtained test scores and their true trait scores, however, meant that the personality measure's construct validity would be severely compromised and, more specifically, that estimates of those individuals' criterion performance would be grossly in error. Our discussion focuses on reasons for the discrepant results reported in the literature pertaining to the effect of socially desirable responding on criterion validity. More important, we explain why the lack of effects of desirability bias on the usual indicators of validity, moderation, and suppression should not be surprising.
过去对人格测量项目的社会赞许性自我报告的研究发现，反应偏差对测量的预测效度的影响不一致，一些研究报告说影响较小，而其他研究报告说影响较大。本研究使用蒙特卡罗方法，通过在模拟测试应答者的人格特质分数之前，系统地向假设的人格特质分数中添加预定数量的偏差，从而对社会赞许性反应的各种模型进行评估，然后计算测试-效标关联度。我们的研究结果普遍支持了之前的发现，即即使在人格分数受到强烈的赞许性偏差影响的情况下，效标预测的降幅也相对较小。此外，反应偏差并没有表现为测试有效性的统计调节因素，也没有抑制有效性。然而，一些被试的实际测试分数和他们的真实特质分数之间的巨大差异意味着人格测量的建构效度将受到严重损害，更具体地说，这些个体的效标表现的估计将严重错误。我们的讨论重点是文献中关于社会赞许性反应对效标效度的影响报告的不一致结果的原因。更重要的是，我们解释了为什么不应惊讶于对通常的有效性、调节和抑制的指标没有产生偏差的影响。
