Evaluation apprehension, social desirability, and the interpretation of test correlations
Main Article Content
In this paper we investigate 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; and a substantially reduced correlation in the (anonymous) low evaluation apprehension condition. Nonanonymous participants also had a lower mean score on the Talyor Manifest Anxiety Scale than did anonymous participants. 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.