Impact of elaboration on socially desirable responding and the validity of biodata measures.
The current study investigated the impact of requiring respondents to elaborate on their answers to a biodata measure on mean scores, the validity of the biodata item composites, subgroup mean differences, and correlations with social desirability. Results of this study indicate that elaborated responses result in scores that are much lower than nonelaborated responses to the same items by an independent sample. Despite the lower mean score on elaborated items, it does not appear that elaboration affects the size of the correlation between social desirability and responses to biodata items or that it affects criterion-related validity or subgroup mean differences in a practically significant way.
Schmitt
Neal
N
Dept of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1117, USA. schmitt@msu.edu
Oswald
Fred L
FL
Kim
Brian H
BH
Gillespie
Michael A
MA
Ramsay
Lauren J
LJ
Yoo
Tae-Yong
TY
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010560:Personnel Selection; D011897:Random Allocation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014342:Truth Disclosure