Social Desirability and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Abstract

The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, a 33-item self-report questionnaire, was administered to an age-matched sample of twenty-five irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients, twenty-four psychiatric patients meeting a diagnosis of major depression, and nineteen controls. As predicted, planned comparisons analysis showed a significant group effect: IBS group scores were significantly higher than both depressed and control group scores ( p < .05). Implications of this social desirability response set for the psychological assessment and treatment of IBS are discussed.