NCJ Number
138242
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1992) Pages: 29-39
Date Published
1992
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Fifty male spouse abusers attending a court-mandated treatment program in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and 75 women who had just left a physically or emotionally abusive relationship and answered newspaper advertisements for a separate study were asked to report on the extent of physical violence and emotional abuse in their relationship.
Abstract
Measures of socially desirable responding (SDR) were administered to both groups. Results revealed that the abusing spouses' self-reports of physical abuse correlated negatively with one SDR measure (the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding) but not another (the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale); emotional abuse correlated negatively with both measures. Although physical abuse was mainly related to impression management (the purposeful manipulation of responses by respondents), psychological abuse was affected by both impression management and self- deception. The abusers' reports of their own anger also correlated negatively with SDR. Both self-deception and impression management appear to contribute to the underreporting of anger. Finally, abuse victims reports of both physical and emotional abuse were unrelated to SDR. Tables and 25 references (Author abstract modified)