Premium
Gender‐controlled measures of socially desirable responding
Author(s) -
Becker Gilbert,
Cherny Stacey S.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(199409)50:5<746::aid-jclp2270500512>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , developmental psychology , social psychology , scale (ratio) , psychometrics , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
Items in various scales that measure socially desirable responding (SDR) appear to vary in significance in male and female respondents. Recent findings suggest that females are more sensitive to the contents of more than two‐thirds of such items. As a result, scales that measure SDR cannot be considered gender balanced, not to mention gender free. We examined three levels at which SDR items can be construed as gender controlled and arrived at a formula for item selection in the development of gender‐controlled scales. Application of the formula resulted in the 10‐item Gender‐Free Inventory of Desirable Responding (GFIDR), with an inter‐item reliability of .68, and the 12‐item Gender Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (GBIDR), with an inter‐item reliability of .71. The distribution characteristics of the two scales suggested that gender differences in the higher moments should be considered in the interpretation of results based on otherwise gendercontrolled scales.