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Use of Social Desirability Scales in Clinical Psychology: A Systematic Review
Author(s) -
Perinelli Enrico,
Gremigni Paola
Publication year - 2016
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/jclp.22284
Subject(s) - psychology , social desirability , social psychology , applied psychology , clinical psychology
Objective There is still an open debate about the utility of social desirability indicators. This report systematically reviewed the use of social desirability scales in studies addressing social desirability in clinical psychology. Method A systematic review (January 2010–March 2015) was conducted, including 35 studies meeting the inclusion criteria of being published in peer‐reviewed journals and describing quantitative findings about an association of social desirability with clinical psychology variables using a cross‐sectional or longitudinal design. Results Social desirability was associated with self‐reports of various clinical‐psychological dimensions. Most of the included studies treated social desirability as a 1‐dimensional variable and only 10 of 35 disentangled the impression management and self‐deception components. Although theoretical literature does not consider social desirability a mere response bias, only 4 of the reviewed articles controlled for the possible suppressor effect of personality variables on social desirability, while the majority focused upon the stylistic (response bias) rather than the substantive (personality) nature of this construct. Conclusion The present review highlighted some limitations in the use of social desirability scales in recent clinical psychology research and tried to offer a few suggestions for handling this issue.