Evaluating Social Desirability Bias in Assessment

It is important to control social desirability bias in self-report assessments. A pilot study was conducted in which two scales measuring social desirability bias were given along with other parental self-report measures that assessed parental acceptance-rejection, behavioral control, and psychological control. The study was conducted on 121 middle-class and upper middle-class parents of children of ages 8-11 years in Bangalore City. The two scales used for measuring social desirability bias in mothers and fathers were the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale (MCSDS)-Short Form C and the SDS-17. The Mann-Whitney U test and the "t" test were used to check the hypotheses. The study reports obtained the results on the efficacy of the two tools.