Relationship between Estimated Occurrence and Social Desirability Scale Value of Objective Personality Items

Abstract

Item parameters have been used to predict and unify many aspects of behavior related to objective personality items. Parameters such as probability of endorsement and social desirability scale value have not been related to the likelihood of occurrence in the population of the overt behavior signified by an item. This study showed that both social desirability scale value and probability of endorsement correlate highly with probability of occurrence estimated by a sample of judges. The correlation between probability of occurrence and probability of endorsement is higher than the other two correlations among these three item characteristics for both male and female Ss.