How old will social desirability affect psychological test scores?

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K04371
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Clinical psychology
• Research Institution: Nagoya City University
• Principal Investigator: SUKIGARA Masune 名古屋市立大学, 大学院人間文化研究科, 教授 (80148155)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 心理検査 / 社会的望ましさ / 前青年期 / 気質

Outline of Final Research Achievements

At what age will social desirability bias appear in scores of self-report psychological tests? To answer the question, early adolescents (from 10 to15 years old) and their mothers (359 pairs) were administrated the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-Revised. And also they rated social desirability of this test's items. The results showed that as age increased, a way of influencing social desirability bias on the scores of children have become to be similar to mothers'. Since social desirability is considered to be a manifestation of the internalization of a belief system in their culture, this research on the response bias in psychological tests also could indicate that the internalization emerges in early adolescent.

Free Research Field

心理測定

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

心理検査の領域では，安価で簡便に実施可能な自己報告式の質問紙が何歳くらいから実施可能であるかは，実用上重要な問題である。心理検査の得点を歪める社会的望ましさを補正することは，得点を解釈するときに必要となり，その補正方法に成人のものが利用可能なら，前青年期あるいは青年期に別の基準を従来作成していたものが不要になる。
発達の観点からすると文化の規範を内在化させる年齢段階を心理検査という観点からも明らかにできることができたことが重要である。