A formal modeling approach towards assessing socially desirable responding with the overclaiming technique

尽管访谈和问卷调查在行为研究中被广泛使用，但敏感态度、属性和行为的自我报告的有效性受到个人倾向于提供过于积极的自我描述的影响。处理这个问题的一种方法是评估（并最终在统计上控制）个人提供社会期望反应的倾向。过度声称技术旨在通过考虑自我报告和外部标准之间的差异来衡量这种倾向。为此，参与者收到一份由实际存在的和虚构的单词（据称指的是常识）组成的清单，并被要求陈述他们是否熟悉每一个项目。过度声称被定义为倾向于声称对事实上不存在的项目的知识，因此，可以用作自我呈现倾向的标准差异测量。与传统方法（如广泛使用的印象管理量表）相比，这种方法的直接优势在于，自我报告和标准之间的系统差异很可能是由于社会期望的反应，而不是由于拥有实际的人格特征。尽管有这种概念上的优势，但通常通过基于信号检测理论的指数进行的过度索赔操作受到响应趋势和记忆过程的混淆的影响。此外，如何解释该指数的整个范围尚不清楚。计划中的项目试图通过开发和验证一个改进的过度索赔度量模型来克服这一限制，该模型植根于多项处理树建模框架。所提出的模型从响应趋势分解记忆过程，并且另外允许对整个参数空间进行明确的解释。项目的第一部分包括系统的，主要是实验的，验证所提出的测量模型的参数，以确保它们作为心理过程组件的解释。第二部分包括一组全面的研究，(a)试图证明过度要求结构在测量和控制响应扭曲方面的效用，(b)根据从信号检测理论推导的过度要求指数比较评估所提出的测量模型。如果提出的测量模型在可靠地评估提供社会期望反应的趋势方面被证明是有用的，这可以被视为对针对这一问题的现有方法的重大改进。

Although interviews and questionnaires are widely used in behavioral research, the validity of self-reports of sensitive attitudes, attributes, and behaviors suffers from the tendency of individuals to provide overly positive self-descriptions. One approach to deal with this issue is to assess (and ultimately statistically control for) individuals´ tendencies to provide socially desirable responses. The overclaiming technique aims to measure such tendencies by considering the discrepancy between a self-report and an external criterion. To this end, participants receive a list made up of both factually existent and invented words (allegedly referring to general knowledge) and are asked to state whether they are familiar with each of the items. Overclaiming is defined as the tendency to claim knowledge about factually non-existent items, and, consequently, can be used as a criterion discrepancy measure of self-presentation tendencies. The immediate advantage over traditional approaches (such as widely used impression management scales) lies in the fact that systematic differences between self-report and criterion are likely due to socially desirable responding, rather than due to possessing actual personality traits. Despite this conceptual advantage, the usual operationalization of overclaiming via an index based on signal detection theory suffers from the confound of response tendencies and memory processes. In addition, it is unclear how to interpret the entire range of this index. The planned project attempts to overcome this limitations by developing and validating an improved measurement model of overclaiming, rooted in the multinomial processing tree modeling framework. The proposed model decomposes memory processes from response tendencies and additionally allows for an unambiguous interpretation of the entire parameter space. The first part of the project covers the systematic, mainly experimental, validation of the parameters of the proposed measurement model to ensure their interpretation as psychological process components. The second part comprises a comprehensive set of studies that (a) attempt to demonstrate the utility of the overclaiming construct in measuring and controlling response distortions and (b) comparatively evaluate the proposed measurement model against the overclaiming index derived from signal detection theory. Provided that the proposed measurement model proves useful in reliably assessing the tendency to provide socially desirable responses, this can be seen as substantial improvement over existing approaches directed towards this issue.