Reconsidering response sets, test-taking attitudes, dissimulation, self-deception, and social desirability

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Personality Research

Background:

• Traces the historical development of personality research constructs from Wundt's laboratory.
• Highlights key contributions from Meehl, Hathaway, Edwards, and Cattell.

Purpose of the Study:

• To summarize and analyze three lines of personality research: response sets, empirical keying, and social desirability.
• To evaluate Cattell's theoretical formulations in personality assessment.

Main Methods:

• Historical review of personality research.
• Analysis of theoretical formulations concerning response sets, empirical keying, and social desirability.
• Examination of Cattell's trait-view theory and perturbation theory.

Main Results:

• Identifies Cattell's perturbation theory as a comprehensive system for understanding response distortions.
• Demonstrates the theory's utility in designing multivariate studies for personality assessment.

Conclusions:

• Cattell's perturbation theory provides the most robust framework for analyzing systematic response distortions in personality questionnaires.
• The theory offers a solid foundation for future multivariate research in personality assessment.