La Escala de Deseabilidad Social de Marlowe-Crowne: baremos para la población general española y desarrollo de una versión breve

The Spanish adaptations of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-C SDS) were normed on samples of university students or of adults assessed in personnel selection/promotion settings. Given the influence of age and assessment setting on the M-C SDS, these norms are inadequate for adult volunteers. This is the first study that provides normative and reliability data and a short form of Ávila Espada and Tomé Rodríguez’s Spanish adaptation of the M-C SDS with Spanish adult volunteers (N = 575). Internal consistency estimates for the M-C SDS were adequate (alphas = .72-.80). The standardized differences in M-C SDS scores between the adult volunteer sample and university student or personnel selection/promotion samples reached values of medium size (d = 0.46 and 0.70). This result supports the development of specific norms for adult volunteers. In two independent subsamples of adult volunteers, a short form of 18-items showed internal consistency indices for its items that were higher than those for the 33 items of the complete scale. This short form did not involve a significant loss of reliability (alphas = .72 and .80). Global norms and norms for age groups are provided for the short and complete forms of the M-C SDS.