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Social Desirability Scale (EDS-20)

Portuguese version (original)

Simões, M. R., Almiro, P. A., & Sousa, L. B. (2014). Escala de Desejabilidade Social de 20 Itens (EDS-20) [The Social Desirability Scale (EDS-20)]. Laboratório de Avaliação Psicológica e Psicometria (PsyAssessmentLab), Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra.

Theoretical background

Social desirability (SD) is the tendency of subjects to attribute to themselves attitudes/behaviours with socially desirable values and to reject in themselves the presence of attitudes/behaviours with socially undesirable values, when they respond to scales of attitudes or inventories of personality (Almiro, 2017; Crowne, & Marlowe, 1960).

The “distortion” produced by the SD constitutes an important factor to consider in the bias of responses to psychological assessment instruments, since it influences the data obtained and threatens the objectivity of the measures. These biases can have harmful repercussions in the investigation of the psychometric properties of instruments (reliability and validity) (Jackson, & Messick, 1958; Angleitner, & Wiggins, 1986; Paulhus, 1989).

Description

Assessment Domain: Social desirability.

Type of Instrument: Self-report questionnaire.

Application: Individual, 2-5 minutes.

Population: Adolescents, adults, and older adults.

Dimensions

The Social Desirability Scale (EDS-20; Simões, Almiro, & Sousa, 2014) resulted from a literature review and the analysis of the most discriminating items of the Coimbra Social Desirability Scale (EDSC), the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) and the L (Lie/Social Desirability scale) of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - Revised (EPQ-R).

The Social Desirability Scale (EDS-20) is a self-report instrument to assess behaviors and attitudes considered socially desirable, involving the denial of negative characteristics and the attribution of positive qualities. In its current (final) version, the scale has 20 dichotomous response items (“Yes” / “No”).

Studies

The EDS-20 is a normative test (with reference to the norm), which can be applied to subjects over 16 years of age (adolescents, adults and older adults), for research and psychological assessment in clinical and forensic contexts. In these contexts, the EDS-20 can be a very useful instrument in assessing the level of sincerity of the answers given by the subjects, and, to this extent, the validity of the results in the assessment protocols.
To study the psychometric properties of the EDS-20 (CTT and IRT) and establish norms of interpretation, a sample of the community was used (N = 616; norms: total; men, women; 16-30 years, + 31 years ) and a forensic sample (N = 613; subjects evaluated within the scope of processes of Regulation of Parental Responsibilities; Promotion and Protection; in a Medical-Legal context, within the scope of psychological expertise, which include processes in the investigation phase, Domestic Violence cases, damage assessment, complementary psychiatry and neurology evaluations (e.g., Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injuries, among others); male subjects serving a prison sentence, young people aged equal or older to 16 years to comply with Educational Guardianship Measure for Internment and Guardianship Measure in Educational Centers.

Contacts

Pedro A. Almiro (pedroarmelimalmiro@gmail.com).

Mário R. Simões (simoesmr@fpce.uc.pt).

References

  1. Almiro, P. A. (2017). Uma nota sobre a desejabilidade social e o enviesamento de respostas [A note on social desirability and response bias]. Avaliação Psicológica, 16(3). http://doi.org/10.15689/ap.2017.1603.ed
  2. Simões, M. R., Almiro, P. A., & Sousa, L. B. (2014). Escala de Desejabilidade Social de 20 Itens (EDS-20) [The Social Desirability Scale (EDS-20)]. Laboratório de Avaliação Psicológica e Psicometria (PsyAssessmentLab), Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra.
  3. Almiro, P. A., Almeida, D., Ferraz, M., Ferreira, R., Silvestre, M. J., Perdiz, C., Dias, I. S., Gonçalves, S., Sousa, L. B., & Simões, M. R. (2017). Escala de Desejabilidade Social de 20 Itens (EDS-20) [Social Desirability Scale (EDS-20)]. In M. R. Simões, L. S. Almeida, & M. M. Gonçalves (Eds.), Psicologia Forense: Instrumentos de Avaliação (pp. 335-352) [Forensic Psychology: Assessment instruments]. Pactor.
  4. Almiro, P. A., Simões, M. R., & Sousa, L. (2012). Escala de Desejabilidade Social de Marlowe-Crowne (versão 33 itens): Estudos de adaptação e validação para a população portuguesa. Estudo não publicado. [Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale – 33 items: Adaptation and validation studies for the Portuguese population. Unpublished study].
  5. Almeida, D. (2015). Comportamento de simulação e exagero de sintomas em contexto médico-legal: Novos estudos de validação do Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) [Simulation behavior and exaggeration of symptoms in medico-legal context: New validation studies of the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS)]. Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e Saúde, sub-especialização de Psicologia Forense. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra. (Unpublished Forensic Psychology Master dissertation).
  6. Baptista, B. (2016). Estudos de validação de duas escalas de avaliação da Desejabilidade Social, EDS-20 e DESCA, numa amostra forense [Validation studies of two Social Desirability rating scales, EDS-20 and DESCA, in a forensic sample]. Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e Saúde, sub-especialização de Psicologia Forense. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra. (Unpublished Forensic Psychology Master dissertation).
  7. Marques, A. (2016). Estudos de validação de duas escalas de avaliação da Desejabilidade Social – DESCA e EDS-20 – numa amostra da população geral [Validation studies of two rating scales of Social Desirability – DESCA and EDS-20 – in a sample of the general population]. Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e Saúde, sub-especialização de Psicologia Forense. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra. (Unpublished Forensic Psychology Master dissertation).
  8. Ferraz, A. M. (2015). Estudo de validação de um Questionário de Comportamentos Autolesivos em Reclusos [Validation study of a Questionnaire on Self-Injurious Behaviors in Inmates]. Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e Saúde, sub-especialização em Psicologia Forense. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra. (Unpublished Forensic Psychology Master dissertation).
  9. Ferreira, R. (2015). Estudos de validação do Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2): Relações com a Escala de Impulsividade de Barratt (BIS-11) e o Questionário de Agressividade de Buss e Perry (AQ) [Validation Studies of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2): Relationships with the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) and the Buss and Perry Aggressiveness Questionnaire (AQ)]. Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e Saúde, sub-especialização em Psicologia Forense. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra. (Unpublished Forensic Psychology Master dissertation)