Michael D. Crino

SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS AND THE MARLOWE-CROWNE SOCIAL DESIRABILITY SCALE

The reported studies investigated two issues of importance to researchers and practitioners interested in the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the sensitivity or social desirability of the individual items comprising the scale and the continued appropriateness of the original scoring scheme presented in 1960. Analysis indicates that over half of the items may no longer be sensitive enough to be useful. Also, it appears that the original keying may no longer be appropriate for a number of items. Finally, based on these findings, implications for the continued use of the Marlowe-Crowne Scale are discussed.

Gender-Based Influences: The Promotion Recommendation

This study used a between-subjects analysis of variance design (2 × 2 × 2 × 2) to estimate the effects of rater gender, ratee gender, the gender stereotype of the job, and the gender stereotype of the ratees personal characteristics on a promotion decision. The results indicated that female employees with masculine characteristics were evaluated as most promotable regardless of the gender stereotype of the job or the gender of the rater. We also investigated the personal characteristics raters reported using in making their decisions. We asked raters to select ratee personal characteristics that most influenced their promotion decisions. Discriminant analyses showed that male and female raters approached the rating process differently and that it is predominantly the gender stereotype of the ratees personal characteristics rather than the ratees gender that influences the promotion process.

In the Eye of the Beholder: A Reply to Ilgen and Moore

In this article the authors reply to criticism levied at a paper they published. They note that the main issues that the criticism focused on were the reliability of their Women as Managers Scale a...

The Random Response Technique as an Indicator of Questionnaire Item Social Desirability/Personal Sensitivity

Begin, Boivin, and Bellerose (1979) presented an hypothesis relating the random response technique to the sensitivity of questionnaire items. This hypothesis states that if one assumes the random response technique assures subjects a greater degree of anonymity than the traditional direct questionnaire method, then a comparison between these two methods would be a direct and useful index of the social disirability of a particular trait, behavior, or attitude. It is proposed that if the proportion of “yes” responses to a particular item was higher for the direct questionnaire group than the random response group, then the item was socially desirable. If the converse resulted, the item was socially undesirable. The Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne and Marlowe, 1960; Crowne and Marlowe, 1964) was used to test this hypothesis. The results suggest a potential new use for the random response technique. The implications of this procedure for scale construction are also discussed.

Feedback Effects in Intrinsic/Extrinsic Reward Paradigms

This study examines the effects of redundant feedback on intrinsic motivation to perform a task. Specifically it examines the effect of performancefeedback where there is task closure sufficient to indicate success orfailure to the individualperforming the task. Suchfeedback is characteristic of many intrinsiclextrinsic reward paradigms. The results indicate that redundant task performance feedback may not yield positive effects on attitudinal measures of intrinsic motivation. Such effects appear to be assumed in the literature.