Citation

Cervellione KL, Lee Y, Bonanno GA. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 2009; 69(3): 438-458.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0013164408322020

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Self-deception has become a construct of great interest in individual differences research because it has been associated with levels of resilience and mental health. The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) is a self-report measure used for quantifying self-deception. In this study we used Rasch modeling to examine the properties of the self-deception scale of the BIDR in terms of dimensionality, use of response category, sample appropriateness, and reliability. A total of 315 university students (ages 18-21) were administered the self-deception scale of the BIDR. Seven-category and 2-category scoring methods were compared, as approved by the developers of the scale. Overall, the 7-category model was the best fit for the data and the sample. We concluded that the scale has the best reliability using a 7-category model with Item 13 deleted. Because of low person measure separation and reliability, the appropriateness of use of this instrument in undergraduate populations is questioned; the use of the measure in populations with larger ranges of self-deception is not recommended.