Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Intervening Items On Self-Esteem Tests: A Study Of Face Validity, Douglas Wayne Snuffer Ii

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The domain of self-esteem testing has often been thought to suffer from problems concerning demand characteristics. High face validity of many common tests of self-esteem, such as the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale, may influence responding of test takers, such that they respond in a socially desirable way. The current study investigated the effects of inserting "neutral" intervening items between items of the Self-Esteem Scale, creating a test that is less face valid. No significant effect was discovered concerning the primary hypothesis, though other significant results were found. Explanations and implications of the obtained results are discussed.