Die Soziale-Erwünschtheits-Skala-17 (SES-17): Entwicklung und erste Befunde zu Reliabilität und Validität [The Social Desirability Scale-17 (SDS-17): Development and first findings on reliability and validity]

The Social Desirability Scale by Crowne and Marlowe (1960), M-C SDS, continues to enjoy great popularity, as does the German version by Lück and Timaeus (1969). After 40 years, however, it is questionable whether the M-C SDS is still up-to-date. It may well be that one could find new items with a higher degree of social desirability. Four studies are described in which a new scale in the style of the Marlowe-Crowne scale, the Social Desirability Scale-17 (SDS-17), was developed and examined. The SDS-17, a 17-item scale, displayed satisfactory reliability and convergent validity: Internal consistency ranged from .72 to .75; test-retest stability across four weeks was .82; and the correlations with the M-C SDS ranged from .67 to .74. Overall, the SDS-17 is comparable to the M-C SDS. However, it is shorter (17 instead of 23 items) and demonstrates greater face-validity: A sample of 49 judges rated the items of both scales with respect to social desirability. The SDS-17 items received significantly and substantially higher ratings than the M-C SDS items.