ASSESSING YOUR OWN PERSONALITY
Response Tendencies
Indicate the extent to which you agree with each of the following state-
ments. Use a 7-point scale to indicate your response, with 1 ¼Not True
and 7¼Very True.
1. I sometimes tell lies if I have to.*
2. I never cover up my mistakes.
3. There have been occasions when I have taken advantage of
someone.*
4. I never swear.
5. I sometimes try to get even rather than forgive and forget.*
6. I always obey laws, even if I ’m unlikely to get caught.
7. I have said something bad about a friend behind his or her
back.*
8. When I hear people talking privately, I avoid listening.
9. I have received too much change from a salesperson without
telling him or her.*
10. I always declare everything at customs.
11. When I was young, I sometimes stole things.*
12. I have never dropped litter on the street.
13. I sometimes drive faster than the speed limit.*
14. I never read sexy books or magazines.
15. I have done things that I don ’t tell other people about.*
16. I never take things that don ’t belong to me.
17. I have taken sick-leave from work or school even though
I wasn ’t really sick.*
18. I have never damaged a library book or store merchandise
without reporting it.
19. I have some pretty awful habits.*
20. I don ’t gossip about other people ’s business.
This scale was designed to detect a social desirability response tendency. To
obtain your score, give yourself one point for each 1 or 2 response to odd-
numbered items (the ones with asterisks) and one point for each 6 or 7 re-
sponse to even-numbered items. The test developer found a mean score of4.9 and a standard deviation of 3.2 for female college students, and a mean
score of 4.3 and a standard deviation of 3.1 for male college students.
People who score high on this measure tend to present themselves in anoverly favorable light.
Scale: The Impression Management Scale from the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding
Source: From Lockard, J. S. and D. L. Paulhus (Ed.). Self-Deception: An Adaptive Mechanism.
Prentice-Hall, 1988.178 CHAPTER 7 The Trait Approach