Cultural and ethical aspects of social desirability in the psychological research

ANCUTA MARIA GURZA,

Universitatea “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Iași

Abstract

This is an explorative study of the parent-child relationship from the perspective of the attachment
theory and parenting styles. In the context of the intensified interest in the bidirectional psychological
research, the approach is on the implications of social desirability in the psychological evaluation. The
goal of this article is to answer the following questions: what is the difference between the professional
caregivers and biological parents at the social desirability level? To what extent is the parents’ social
desirability associated with other psychological characteristics? The research sample was composed of
165 of which 57 were parent - biological child dyads and 108 were professional caregiver - child in care
center dyads from Timis and Dolj counties. The comparison of the two research samples independently
showed the following: there are significant differences between foster and biological parents
[t(83,43)=7,818] at the social desirability level, the magnitude of the relationship being very strong
(r=0,69); the social desirability of the parents involved in the study is negatively associated with the
dimensions of the marital adaptation, with the permissive parenting style practiced and with the parent’s
age. Also, positive associations were registered between the level of the social desirability and the
reporting level of the internalizing behaviors exhibited by children, the parent’s insecure attachment
style: anxious and hesitant. This paper discusses the ethical aspects and cultural influences associated
with the social desirability.

Key-words: ethics research, solcial desirability, parent-child relationship, foster parentfoster child.

Background:
Parenting represents a central element in one’s life and any intervention may be perceived negatively.
One effect of an approach at this construct brings into question concepts such as self-presentation,
desirable identity or social desirability. In the context of evaluating this attitude/emotional dimension of


"Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iaşi, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Toma Cozma Street no 3,
Iaşi, 700554, România, e-mail: ancagurza@gmail.com
the parent-child relationship, the beneficial character of the respondent’s desirable identification
becomes active, getting intensified during group evaluations.
Objectives:
The objective of this study is to present the cultural and ethical aspects related to partents’ social
desirability during parent-child evaluations.
Research design:
This study is a non-experimental one with a standard dyadic design. The data collection was achieved
through the self-report method along 8 group evaluation sessions ( 4 with professional caregivers and 4
with biological parents). The statistical analyzes performed included the test for independent selections
and the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Participant and research context:
The data was collected during the empirical research on the attachment and parenting style
particularities of children raised in foster families compared to the ones raised in biological families. The
participants were 165 parents ( 108 foster parents and 57 biological parents). The data collection was
done by the researcher in the presence of case managers within the professional caregivers groups and
by the head master within the biological parents groups.

Ethical considerations:
With a parent-child dyad character, this research had its basis on the ethical principles as they are stated
in the Ethical Code of the psychological research and by the Society for Research in Child
Develpoment, http://srcd.org. Both foster and biological parents have agreed to participate in this
research on informed consent.
Taking into account the results of other studies regarding the variety of the results at social desirability
level based on culture, sesitivity to ethical aspects and the respondents’ gender, we can consider that the
results obtained are influenced by the power and authority of the institutions.
Findings:
Social desirability raises problems in the precise measure of attitudes. Attitudes become extremely sharp
especially when they aim at different behaviours that are culturally and socially validated. Therefore,
there were significant differences registered within our group of respondents at social desirability level
depending on the family type the parent belongs to ( foster or biological); foster parents obtained a
higher average than biological parents [t(83,43)=7,818], the magnitude of the relationship being very
strong.
The social desirabilty of the parents included in the study is negatively associated with the dimensions of
the marital adaptation ( couple fulfillement [r(163)=0,244, p<0,05, dyadic cohesion [r(163)= -0,248,
p<0,05], showing affection [r(163)= -0,276, p<0,05] ) , with the permissive parenting style practiced
[r(163)= -0,176, p<0,05] and the parents’ age [r(163)= -0,304, p<0,05]. Also, there were positive
associations registered between the level of social dsirability and the level of internalizing behaviours
exhibited by children [r(163)=0,202, p<0,05], the dictatorial style practiced by the parent [r(163)= 0,385,
p<0,05],the parent’s insecure attachment style: anxious [r(163)=0,276, p<0,05] and hesitant [r(163)=
0,323, p<0,05].

Discussion:
Considering the causes that determine the social desirability according to Schlenker ( 1980), the first
being instrumental in the sense of wanting to influence others to gain benefits, and the second being
expressive in the sense of building an ideal image of our own self and trying to present ourselves
according to that image, we believe that the results obtained belong to the second category. When it
comes to evaluating parenting competencies in relation to the child, parents are motivated to believe that
things happen based on the social and cultural standards, especially the professional caregivers to whom
being a parent is a job. Moreover, the traditional cultural characteristics of the selected determines the
limited access to information related to the family; this represents a value to which people outside the
family cannot have access, even if ethical and confidentiality principles are followed.
Conclusion:
The results obtained are part of the wide framework of the management of impression which highlights
the fact that individuals can directly claim desirable attributes by presenting information about their own
qualities, but also indirectly by presenting information about the qualities of others, the latter referring to
their children. This way, parents with increased social desirability get high scores in couple fulfillment,
dyadic cohesion and in expressing affection to their partners. Concering children’s behaviour, parents
report more internalizing behaviours than externalizing ones, the latter being more culturally and
socially acceptable.
In addition to this, the second conclusion is that social desirability influences the respondent’s ethical
conduct in the context of evaluating his relatinoship with the authority.
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