Cr. Colvin et al., PSYCHOMETRIC TRUTHS IN THE ABSENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANING - A REPLYTO ZUCKERMAN AND KNEE, Journal of personality and social psychology, 70(6), 1996, pp. 1252-1255
M. Zuckerman and C.R. Knee (1996) contend that the relationship we rep
orted between self-enhancement and psychological maladjustment (C.R. C
olvin, J. Block, D.C. Funder, 1995) is ''not warranted'' because a dif
ference score was used to operationalize self-enhancement. In this art
icle we discuss the issues raised by Zuckerman and Knee, the warnings
historically issued about the use of difference scores, and the proble
ms associated with alternative statistical procedures. We conclude tha
t difference scores can provide statistically valid and psychologicall
y meaningful results.