Assessing socially desirable responding and its impact on self-report measures among sexual offenders

Abstract

It is often assumed that offenders employ socially desirable responding when completing self-report questionnaires, thereby invalidating such measures. The aim of this study is to examine the extent that sexual offenders employ socially desirable responding and the impact that socially desirable responding, as measured by the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding-6 (BIDR: 6, Paulhus, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 598Á609, 1984), has on self-report measures. The sample comprised 1730 adult males, all convicted and serving a sentence for a sexual offence. The entire sample had completed a set of self-report measures used to identify treatment needs, and examine progress in treatment. The results indicate that the extent of socially desirable responding is smaller than assumed, and its impact on a number of self-report measures is lower than expected. Furthermore, lower levels of risk of sexual re-offending were significantly associated with higher scores on the impression management subscale. We suggest that impression management should be viewed as more of a trait-like tendency rather than a validity check, and the use of this scale in determining whether or not to interpret other self-report instruments should be questioned. The present study also indicates that self-report questionnaires used with forensic populations may be accurate and valid. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The relationship between schemas and offence supportive attitudes in mentally disordered sexual offenders

“…Mills & Kroner, 2005. Therefore, the impact of socially desirable responding appeared to be minimal, consistent with Mathie and Wakeling's (2011) finding that socially desirable responding in sexual offenders is less than expected and has a limited influence on self-report methodologies.…”

Challenges for the theory and application of dynamic risk factors

“…According to this view, SDR may be correlated with Theory and Application of Dynamic Risk -24 dynamic risk factors (indeed, SDR was negatively correlated with dynamic risk in Mills and Kroner (2006) and Stevens et al (2015); see also Mathie and Wakeling (2010), but is not related to recidivism risk directly). This view is consistent with a recent reinterpretation of SDR by Uziel (2010), who suggested that instead of response bias, measures of SDR should be regarded as 'interpersonally oriented self-control', that is, SDR reflects the individual's ability to adjust to social situations and seek approval from others.…”

Direct and Indirect Measures of Sexual Maturity Preferences Differentiate Subtypes of Child Sexual Abusers

“…Furthermore, the psychometric properties of the most SUBTYPES OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSERS 6 commonly applied measures are problematic (Kalmus & Beech, 2005). Direct assessment procedures based on self-report suffer from their inherent transparency -probably less due to trait social desirability (Mathie & Wakeling, 2011;Tan & Grace, 2008) than to the legal implications of assessment in forensic contexts, and anxiety about socially ostracizing reactions of important others that are incompatible with offenders' personal aims (Maruna & Mann, 2006). Penile plethysmography (PPG) is an established -however still rather transparent -indirect measurement approach that is well validated (Seto, 2008), but expensive and labor intensive as a method in everyday routine practice.…”