Social Desirability: A Consequence of Self esteem

Abstract

In the era of technological development and turbulence, the growth of humans play a pivotal role.
To assess this growth, the role of self-esteem is pertinent as it delineates to an individual's sense of
their value or worth, or the extent to which a person values, approves of, appreciates, prizes or likes
his or herself (Blascovich & Tomaka, 1991) while it is equally significant to study social reliability
which signifies the tendency of an individual to answer in a particular manner which is
deliberately vague as to locus of demand of favourable characteristics by others. It is in this
backdrop, that the present study explored the relationship between self-esteem and social
desirability via negative and positive self-comparison. Participants who were all females aged 18
to 21 years, completed self-esteem and social desirability scales. Two scales (Rosenberg's Self
Esteem Scale and Balanced Inventory for Desirable Responses by D.L. Paulhus) were used to assess
the individual differences in the response distortion. The sample collected (n= 80) showed a
negative correlation between the two constructs. Respondents who were found out to be low on
self-esteem, were found out to be high on social desirability and vice versa