Response Bias Flashcards
Response Biases
Cognitive biases in which the respondent feels compelled to respond in a certain way rather than reflect their true beliefs
*Individually held, somewhat constant, cognitive style of responding
What can response bias affect?
Reliability and validity of the measurement
Acquiescence Bias
- Yea-saying
* *When an individual agrees with statements without regard for the statement’s meaning
What is an approach to dealing with/later identifying Acquiescence Bias?
Employ a balance of positively- and negatively-worded items reflecting the intended content
Do people tend to default to a positive or a negative answer
Positive
If you see definite bias in your data, what should you do?
Scrap the data!
Extreme reporting
Overuse of extreme options
Moderate reporting
Avoidance of extreme options
How can you deal with extreme reporting?
- Include questions that people couldn’t really care about
* Ensure adequate sample size in case you need to remove some subject’s data
Social Desireability
The tendency for a person to respond in a way that seems socially appealing, regardless of their true characteristics
**Over-reporting of good Bx and underreporting of negative Bx
What can the researcher done to deal with or identify social desirability bias?
Employ a scale that measures socially desirable responding, and set an a priori cut-off
*If a participant answers in a socially desirable manner on THAT scale, they will likely do so in the actual research
What is an example of a scale used for social desirability bias?
Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale
Malingering
When an individual “fakes bad”…generally for some secondary gain
It is estimated that malingering occurs in __% of general psych evaluations
7.3-27%
But this has been updated to 10-30%
How can you reduce and test for malingering?
*Reduce: a higher level of contact between the assessor and the test-taker
- Test:
- *Rae memory test
- *Dot counting test
Prestige Bias
A response is intended to enhance the image of respondent in the eyes of others
Threat Response Bias
Response influenced by anxiety or fear instilled by the nature of the QUESTION
*Typically overarching emotion given toward rest of test
Hostility Response Bias
Response arising from feelings of anger/resentment by the RESPONSE task
*Typically aimed toward a singular response
Auspices Response Bias
Response dictated by the image or opinion of the sponsor rather than the actual question
Mental Set Response Bias
Cognitions or perceptions based on previous items influence response to later ones
*The “PRIMING” problem
Order Response Bias
The sequence in which a series is listed affects the responses to the items
*Example: A test where the first 8 answers are “a, b, c, d, a, b, c, d”, would would expect this to repeat
Why is it difficult to distinguish between possible acquiescent
responses and valid responses for an individual?
Their externalized Bx (what you are seeing/what they report) does not match their internally held beliefs
In regard to social desirability, what do you see as the difference between impression management and self-deception? Which is most associated with a state behavior? Which is most associated with an individual trait?
Impression management (or, “faking good”) is when test takers intentionally attempt to appear socially desirable (e.g., a job applicant might feel motivated to artificially exaggerate desirable characteristic and artificially minimize undesirable characteristics while completing a personnel selection test). This is statelike, as it it happens in response to something.
Self-deception is when test takers hold unrealistically positive views of themselves, firmly believing their overestimation of their psychological characteristics. This is traitlike.
