Recent attempts to reduce internal invalidity in studies employing pretest/posttest self-report indices of improvement have included the refinement of methodologies employing retrospective reports of pre-treatment states. The present study investigated the operation of social desirability and impression management response bias on such retrospective measures. The results do not support the hypothesis of greater bias on retrospective measurement and, in fact, are in a direction that might suggest an interpretation of reduced bias on such measures. The results also continue to support superior validity of retrospective over traditional pretest/posttest indices of improvement following treatment.A science progresses by constantly revising, updating, and improving its research methodologies. Campbell and Stanley (1963), in a landmark work, analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of various experimental and quasi-experimental designs. One of their conclusions was that &dquo;true&dquo; experimental designs controlled for all potential sources of internal invalidity. A recent have demonstrated an instrumentation-related source of internal invalidity in some true experi-
The effects of social desirability, need for social approval, self-satisfaction, and sex differences on the tendency to cheat when confronted with failure were investigated. Subjects were placed in a temptation situation in which they failed to meet social norms unless they cheated during a temptation period in which it appeared that cheating would be undetected. The two groups that were found to demonstrate the most extensive cheating were women scoring high on the self-satisfaction measure and subjects scoring high simultaneously on both the need for approval and self-satisfaction measures. Generally, men were not found to cheat significantly. It was found also that men demonstrated a greater expectancy of success and a higher level of aspiration than women, and that high scorers on the social desirability scale demonstrated a greater expectancy of success than low scorers.
A wide spectrum of opinions and beliefs concerning homosexuals was sampled, compiled into a questionnaire format, and administered to a large group of heterosexual subjects. Factor analysis yielded six independent sets of attitudes that describe the variance in heterosexual reactions to homosexuals. The relationship of sex differences and familiarity with homosexuals to variations in response style is discussed.
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