Use of social desirability scales in clinical psychology: a systematic review

Objective: There is still an open debate about the utility of social desirability indicators. This report systematically reviewed the use of social desirability scales in studies addressing social desirability in clinical psychology. Method: A systematic review (January 2010–March 2015) was conducted, including 35 studies meeting the inclusion criteria of being published in peer-reviewed journals and describing quantitative findings about an association of social desirability with clinical psychology variables using a cross-sectional or longitudinal design. Results: Social desirability was associated with self-reports of various clinical-psychological dimensions. Most of the included studies treated social desirability as a 1-dimensional variable and only 10 of 35 disentangled the impression management and self-deception components. Although theoretical literature does not consider social desirability a mere response bias, only 4 of the reviewed articles controlled for the possible suppressor effect of personality variables on social desirability, while the majority focused upon the stylistic (response bias) rather than the substantive (personality) nature of this construct. Conclusion: The present review highlighted some limitations in the use of social desirability scales in recent clinical psychology research and tried to offer a few suggestions for handling this issue.