Repression, self-concealment and rationality/emotional defensiveness: The correspondence between three questionnaire measures of defensive coping

We investigated the relationship between three approaches of measuring defensive coping by self-report instruments: The Rationality/Emotional Defensiveness Scale (R/ED), the Self-Concealment Scale (SCS), and the two-dimensional operationalization of repression using the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (SDS-CM) and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS). The four questionnaires were administered to a students sample (N = 224). Analyses of variance of the R/ED and the SCS within the two-dimensional repression typology were conducted separately for men and women. Repressors (defined by high scores on the SDS-CM and low scores on the MAS) revealed no unique pattern of scores on the R/ED or SCS. The R/ED was positively related to the SDS-CM for men, and to the MAS for women. The SCS covaried positively with the MAS for both groups, and with the SDS-CM for men. No association was found between self-concealment and rationality/emotional defensiveness. It is concluded that the three constructs tap different aspects of defensive coping.