Award Date

1-1-1999

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

N. Clayton Silver

Number of Pages

78

Abstract

The Mach IV scale measures Machiavellianism, the propensity to be manipulatory in interpersonal relations. The Mach IV has been criticized for social desirability response bias, or the tendency to present oneself in an overly favorable light. Socially desirable responding, as measured by the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, however, was postulated to reflect a facet of the Machiavellianism construct. A coalition-bargaining game was played with college students (N = 126), using 21 groups each of sex-segregated triads in a 2 (sex) by 3 (high, medium, and low levels of Machiavellianism) between-subjects design. Game scores served as the dependent variable and were interpreted as a measure of manipulative success. Neither sex nor levels of Machiavellianism were significantly related to game performance. Machiavellianism was negatively related to overall social desirability and its two subtypes, impression management and self-deceptive enhancement.

Keywords

Bias; Construct; Desirable; Machiavellianism; Responding; Response; Scale; Socially

Controlled Subject

Personality; Social psychology; Psychology--Research--Methodology

File Format

pdf

File Size

1966.08 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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