The Marlowe-Crowne and Edwards Social Desirability Scales: A Psychometric Perspective

Various psychometric characteristics of the Marlowe-Crowne and Edwards Social Desirability scales were assessed in a sample of 108 male and 189 female undergraduates. Major questions of interest focused on the degree of overlap of the two measures and the equivalency of the two measures for males and females. Means, standard deviations, intercorrelations, and internal consistency α were computed by least-squares methods. Results of these analyses were compared to those based on confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis. Results suggested that males and females show different means and similar internal consistency reliability and intercorrelation on these scales. The degree of association between the two measures in both males and females, corrected for attenuation, was approximately .4. Similar conclusions would have been reached with either statistical approach.