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Cognitive and Social Desirability Factors in Marital Adjustment for a Sample of Retired Older Adults

This study investigated cognitive components of marital adjustment and the role of social desirability response sets in a sample of retired older adults. It was hypothesized that higher marital adjustment scores would correlate negatively with dysfunctional beliefs concerning marriage. The objectives of the study were to identify which irrational beliefs are related to higher and lower levels of marital adjustment, and to determine the extent to which higher adjustment scores reflect the tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner. The sample consisted of 45 married couples, each partner of which was retired and aged 65 years or older. Assessment was made by self-report using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), Relationship Belief Inventory (Eidelson & Epstein, 1982), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). Significant correlations were found between virtually all total scores for the total sample as well as males and females separately. Results support the hypotheses that higher Dyadic Adjustment Scale scores were negatively correlated with lower Relationship Belief Inventory and Social Desirability Scale scores. No significant differences were found between males and females on any of the variables.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:rtd-6008
Date01 January 1987
CreatorsWilson, Priscilla B.
PublisherUniversity of Central Florida
Source SetsUniversity of Central Florida
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceRetrospective Theses and Dissertations
RightsPublic Domain

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