Socially Desirable Responding : The Evolution of a Construct

Socially desirable responding (SDR) is typically defined as the tendency to give positive self-descriptions . Its status as a response style rests on the clarification of an underlying psychological construct. A brief history of such attempts is provided . Despite the growing consensus that there are two dimensions of SDR, their interpretation has varied over the years from minimalist operationalizations to elaborate construct validation . I argue for the necessity of demonstrating departure-from-reality in the self-reports of high SDR scorers : This criterion is critical for distinguishing SDR from related constructs. An appropriate methodology that operationalizes SDR directly in terms of self-criterion discrepancy is described. My recent work on this topic has evolved into a two-tiered taxonomy that crosses degree of awareness (conscious vs . unconscious) with content (agentic vs . communal qualities) . Sufficient research on SDR constructs has accumulated to propose a broad reconciliation and integration .