Response Bias

Question 1

Response Biases

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What can response bias affect?

Answer 2

Reliability and validity of the measurement

Question 3

Acquiescence Bias

Answer 3

• Yea-saying

* *When an individual agrees with statements without regard for the statement’s meaning

Question 4

What is an approach to dealing with/later identifying Acquiescence Bias?

Answer 4

Employ a balance of positively- and negatively-worded items reflecting the intended content

Question 5

Do people tend to default to a positive or a negative answer

Answer 5

Positive

Question 6

If you see definite bias in your data, what should you do?

Answer 6

Scrap the data!

Question 7

Extreme reporting

Answer 7

Overuse of extreme options

Question 8

Moderate reporting

Answer 8

Avoidance of extreme options

Question 9

How can you deal with extreme reporting?

Answer 9

• Include questions that people couldn’t really care about

* Ensure adequate sample size in case you need to remove some subject’s data

Question 10

Social Desireability

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What can the researcher done to deal with or identify social desirability bias?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is an example of a scale used for social desirability bias?

Answer 12

Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale

Question 13

Malingering

Answer 13

When an individual “fakes bad”…generally for some secondary gain

Question 14

It is estimated that malingering occurs in __% of general psych evaluations

Answer 14

7.3-27%

But this has been updated to 10-30%

Question 15

How can you reduce and test for malingering?

Answer 15

*Reduce: a higher level of contact between the assessor and the test-taker

• Test:
• *Rae memory test
• *Dot counting test

Question 16

Prestige Bias

Answer 16

A response is intended to enhance the image of respondent in the eyes of others

Question 17

Threat Response Bias

Answer 17

Response influenced by anxiety or fear instilled by the nature of the QUESTION

*Typically overarching emotion given toward rest of test

Question 18

Hostility Response Bias

Answer 18

Response arising from feelings of anger/resentment by the RESPONSE task

*Typically aimed toward a singular response

Question 19

Auspices Response Bias

Answer 19

Response dictated by the image or opinion of the sponsor rather than the actual question

Question 20

Mental Set Response Bias

Answer 20

Cognitions or perceptions based on previous items influence response to later ones

*The “PRIMING” problem

Question 21

Order Response Bias

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Why is it difficult to distinguish between possible acquiescent
responses and valid responses for an individual?

Answer 22

Their externalized Bx (what you are seeing/what they report) does not match their internally held beliefs

Question 23

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?

Answer 23

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.