Abstract
The degree to which response artifacts introduce error into self-report measures has long been a matter of concern in the psychological literature. For example, it has been suggested that self-report measures of subjective well-being (SWB) contain large amounts of variance due to the response style of social desirability (Carstensen and Cone, 1983). In the present study, four potential response artifacts (social desirability, current mood, moral beliefs about happiness, and happiness image management) and their effects on self reports of SWB were studied. Using nonself-report measures of happiness, in addition to self-report measures of SWB, various modes for the prediction of SWB were constructed. A measure of social desirability was found to be a significant predictor of nonself-report as well as self-reported measures of happiness, indicating that social desirability is a substantive personality characteristic which enhances well-being, rather than being a response artifact and source of error variance. Current mood was found to sometimes contribute as a predictor of self-report measures of SWB, suggesting the need for control of or assessment of its effects. Moral beliefs in happiness and image management did not significantly correlate with measures of happiness. Implications of the results for the measurement of well-being and for future research are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrews, F. M. and Withey, S. B.: 1976, Social Indicators of Well-Being: America's Perception of Life Quality. (Plenum Press, New York).
Arkin, R. M. and Lake, E. A.: 1983, ‘Plumbing the depths of the bogus pipeline: A reprise’, Journal of Research in Personality 17, pp. 81–88.
Bower, G. H.: 1981, ‘Mood and memory’, American Psychologist 36, pp. 129–148.
Bradburn, N. M. and Sudman, S.: 1980, Improving Interview Method and Questionnaire Design. (Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco).
Carstensen, L. L. and Cone, J. D.: 1983, ‘Social desirability and the measurement of psychological well-being in elderly persons’, Journal of Gerontology 38, pp. 713–715.
Crowne, D. P. and Marlowe, D.: 1964, The Approval Motive: Studies in Evaluative Dependence. (Wiley, New York).
Diener, E.: 1984, ‘Subjective well-being’, Psychological Bulletin 85, pp. 542–575.
Edwards, A. L.: 1957, The Social Desirability Variable in Personality Assessment and Research. (Dryden, New York).
Edwards, A. L.: 1970, The Measurement of Personality Traits by Scales and Inventories. (Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, New York).
Fordyce, M. W.: 1977, The happiness measures: A sixty-second index of emotional well-being and mental health. Unpublished manuscript, Edison Community College, Ft. Myers, Florida.
Furnham, A.: 1986, ‘Response bias, social desirability, and dissimulation’, Personality and Individual Differences 7, pp. 385–400.
Kozma, A. and Stones, M. J.: 1985, ‘Letter to the editor’, Journal of Gerontology 40, p. 127.
Kozma, A. and Stones, M. J.: 1987, ‘Social desirability in measures of subjective well-being: A systematic evaluation’, Journal of Gerontology 42, pp. 56–59.
Kozma, A. and Stones, M. J.: 1988, ‘Social Indicators Research 20, pp. 1–14.
McCrae, R. R.: 1986, ‘Well-being scales do not measure social desirability’, Journal of Gerontology 41, pp. 390–392.
McCrae, R. R. and CostaJr., P. T.: 1983, ‘Social desirability scales: More substance than style’, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 51, pp. 882–888.
McCrae, R. R. and Costa, P. T., Jr.: 1985, ‘Letter to the Editor’, Journal of Gerontology 40, p. 127.
Moum, T.: 1988, ‘Yea-saying and mood-of-the-day effects in self-reported quality of life’, Social Indicators Research 20, pp. 117–139.
Nisbett, R. E. and Ross, L.: 1980, Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Nisbett, R. E. and Wilson, T.: 1977, ‘Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes’, Psychological Review 84, pp. 231–259.
Sandvik, E., Diener, E. and Seidlitz, L.: 1989, The validity of measures of subjective well-being. Manuscript in preparation.
Schwarz, N. and Clore, G. L.: 1983, ‘Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45, pp. 513–523.
Wiggins, J. S.: 1973, Personality and prediction: Principles of personality assessment. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Pavot, W. et al. Response artifacts in the measurement of subjective well-being. Soc Indic Res 24, 35–56 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00292649
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00292649