ARE SELF-REPORT MEASURES OF DYADIC RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCED BY IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT BIASES

This study systematically examined the effects of impression managemen t biases on the reporting of dyadic relationship information. in an an onymous mail survey, 196 participants (101 women, 95 men) in marital o r cohabiting relationships completed a measure of impression managemen t and several relationship measures. Analyses indicated that impressio n management biases did not affect women's self-reports. Among men, im pression management biases were significantly associated with many of their reports about their relationships. However, statistically contro lling for these biases did not reduce the magnitude of correlations be tween measures of marital quality and the other relationship measures. Furthermore, partners' agreement about observable aspects of their re lationship did not change when the influences of these biases were sta tistically removed. The authors conclude that researchers can generall y trust in the veridicality of anonymous self-report data about common place aspects of marriage.