Social Desirability Response Set and Self-Report Depression Inventories in the Elderly

The present study addressed the issue of the sensitivity of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to a social desirability response set, i.e., the tendency to respond to items on the basis of judgments of desirability/undesirability of item content, as measured by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-CSDS). This investigation was conducted with clinically depressed older adults and with healthy older adults recruited from the community. A negative association was found, only in the clinical group, between M-CSDS and BDI scores. This was explained by the relative emphasis on the assessment of negative attitudes toward self on the BDI. Characteristics of older subjects most susceptible to answering in a socially approved fashion, and possibly to under-reporting depression, are also discussed.