William S. Kogan

A Factor Analysis Of Individual Social Desirability Scale Values.

The factorial structure of individual judgments of social desirability scale value (SDSV) was studied by factor analyzing a 112 (college students) by 100 (MMPI items) data matrix of individual judgments of SDSV in two ways. One analysis was factoring by item (R technique) while the second analysis was factoring by subject (Q technique). A large general SD factor appeared when subject intercorrelations were factored, but no such general factor was identified when item intercorrelations were factored. Evidence was also presented that the large general SD factor was highly correlated with mean or normative SDSVs.

The Effect Of Group Psychotherapy On Interpersonal Perceptions Of Psychiatric Patients

Matched groups of psychiatric patients were randomly assigned either to small group psychotherapy or to a control condition. The Revised Inter- personal Check List was administered three times (zero, three, and six weeks from the time therapy began) with five instructional sets (I am, Most People are, etc.). The results were first factor analyzed by item in accordance with a model developed by Horst (1963), then factor scores were computed, and finally the effects of experimental treatments (group, occasion, set) on the factor scores were evaluated by analysis of variance. Two of eighteen group-by-occasion interactions were significant (p < .01) and suggested that group therapy influenced the interpersonal perceptions of participants in the direction of seeing themselves and others as less assertive and pompous, Seven of eighteen main effects of instructional set were significant (p < .01) and suggested that patients tend to see themselves as unassertive and indulgent of others. It was concluded that Horsts new factor analytic approach to assessing change was promising, particularly in view of the failure of previous efforts to yield significant findings.

An Analysis of Various Methods for Deriving the Social Desirability Score

Seven methods of deriving the social desirability (SD) score for the Interpersonal Check List were evaluated by examining their intercorrelations, their correlations with five MMPI SD measures, and their ability to detect Ss instructed to fake SD responses. The results indicated that SD Scores discriminated SD fakers about equally well, that SD Scores based only on the tendency to endorse socially desirable items correlated least with MMPI SD measures, and various SD Scores based upon all the items in the Interpersonal Check List were highly correlated. These results were obtained for both college students and psychiatric patients.

Factor Analysis Of Individual Social Desirability Scale Values: Second-Order Analysis.

A general social desirability factor emerged at the second-order level when a set of individual social desirability scale values were correlated between subjects (i.e., across items) and factor analysed. However, no such general factor emerged at the second-order level when the individual judgments were correlated between items (i.e., across subjects).