EVALUATION APPREHENSION, SOCIAL DESIRABILITY, AND THE INTERPRETATION OF TEST CORRELATIONS

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the concepts of social desirability and evaluation apprehension. The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale were administered to 63 Harvard and Radcliffe students. As predicted, there was a moderate negative correlation between social desirability and manifest anxiety in the (anonymous) high evaluation apprehension condition (r = −0.35, p = 0.05); and a substantially reduced correlation in the (anonymous) low evaluation apprehension condition (r = −0.04). Nonanonymous subjects also had a lower mean score on the Talyor Manifest Anxiety Scale than did anonymous subjects. The results demonstrate a link between evaluation apprehension and social desirability, and indicate the importance of the nature of the testing situation in clinical or applied settings.