Socially desirable responding and sexuality self-reports

We assessed the impact of two distinct forms; of socially desirable responding-self-deceptive enhancement and impression management-on sexuality self-reports (n = 504) under anonymous testing conditions. Results revealed significant positive relationships between self-deceptive enhancement and sexual adjustment variables for both sexes. Impression management was significantly negatively related to a number of intrapersonal (e.g., unrestricted sexual fantasies, sexual drive) mad interpersonal (e.g., sexual experience, virginity status) sexual behaviors for females, and to unrestricted sexual attributes and fantasies for males. We calculated correlations were first calculated between self-deceptive enhancement, impression management, and personality and conservation scores. Self-deceptive enhancement and impression management were significantly associated with personality for males and females, and with conservatism for females only. When personality and conservation variance were partialed out, associations between self-deceptive enhancement and sexuality variables were eliminated, but associations between impression management and sexuality measures remained significant. These findings highlight the importance of a two-factor approach ra assessing socially desirable responding, and provide modest support for the view that response bias may intrude in self-report sex data, were under anonymous testing conditions.