SOCIAL DESIRABILITY VALUES AND DISPERSIONS FOR THE ITEMS IN TWO SD SCALES- THE MMPI SD SCALE AND AN EXPERIMENTAL SD SCALE

Abstract
The social desirability values for the items in the MMPI SD scale and in an experimental SD cale are reported. The study is based on a sample of 74 undergraduate students at the University of Washington, Seattle. The mean desirability values of the MMPI SD scale items are compared to the values reported by Messick and Jackson (1961), which were based on a sample of 171 students at Pennsylvania State University. The desirability values were highly stable over almost 25 years and across different samples. A correlation between the current desirability values for the items in the MMPI SD scale and an experimental SD scale was also high.