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A large body of research has documented how personality develops across adulthood, yet very little longitudinal work has examined whether these findings generalize beyond predominantly middle-class, highly educated White American or Western European individuals. This preregistered study uses longitudinal data from 1,110 Mexican-origin adults who completed a well-validated personality measure, the Big Five Inventory, up to six times across 12 years. Individuals generally maintained their rank ordering on the Big Five over time (rs = .66-.80), and the relative ordering of the Big Five within persons was also highly stable (rs = .58-.66). All of the Big Five traits showed small, linear mean-level decreases across adulthood. These trajectories showed few associations with sociodemographic factors (sex, education level, and IQ) and cultural factors (generational status, age at immigration, Spanish/English language preference, Mexican cultural values, American cultural values, and ethnic discrimination). The statistically significant findings we did observe mostly concerned associations between cultural values and Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness. Acquiescence bias was also positively associated with Big Five personality trait scores at every wave. There was no evidence of mean-level change in the Big Five when including time-varying acquiescence scores as covariates in the models. Divergences between the present findings and previous research highlight the need to study personality development with diverse aging samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

We propose the use of balanced item parcels to account for method effects caused by acquiescent responding. The use of balanced parcels avoids the need to model method effects explicitly and results in a parsimonious specification of measurement and full structural equation models in the presence of unwanted method effects, particularly when a scale consists of a relatively large number of items. Balanced item parcels are sums or averages of individual items consisting of an equal number of regular and reversed items measuring the same construct. When regular and reversed items are combined into parcels, method effects cancel out (assuming that the method effects affecting the regular and reversed items in a parcel are equal in magnitude), and model fit and parameter estimates will no longer be negatively affected by acquiescent responding. We discuss why balanced item parceling works and when it is likely to prove beneficial, and we present a step-by-step procedure explaining how to use balanced item parceling in practice. We also report a brief hypothetical example to illustrate the proposed approach.

Disciplines such as marketing and education have begun to question the benefits of incorporating reverse polarity items (e.g. a mixture of negatively and positively worded items) into multi-item sc...

Data quality is a major issue when conducting studies in behavioral sciences. One of the possible threats to data quality in user modeling, in particular in questionnaire studies, is providing careless responses (CR). When responding carelessly, subjects do not pay sufficient attention to the questions and therefore compromise the interpretability of the responses. The aim of the current study was to gain a better understanding of the occurrence and identification of CR in Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) studies, where several questionnaires usually are administered daily to the participants over the course of some days, weeks or even months. For this purpose, explorative post-hoc analysis was conducted using the data of an existing EMA study in audiological research. Completion time, variance, skipped items, acquiescence bias and number of textboxes were analyzed as potential indicators for CR both inter- and intraindividually. Furthermore, consistency was examined using linear mixed models and scanning individual questionnaires. Results showed minimal systematic inconsistencies, indicating the absence of large-scale CR. However, this type of analysis might not be appropriate for identifying CR when only occurring occasionally. Moreover, the reliability of indicators of CR might be limited in EMA studies, as the indicators also vary over the course of the study and between different situations. Possibilities for future studies are discussed.

How well can scores on a personality scale predict criteria such as behaviors and life outcomes? This question concerns external validity, which is a core aspect of personality assessment. The present research was conducted to examine how external validity is influenced by a trait scale's internal characteristics, such as its length (number of items), width (breadth of content), and balance (between positively and negatively keyed items). Participants completed the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), and were also assessed on a set of self-reported and peer-reported validity criteria. We used the BFI-2 item pool to construct multiple versions, or iterations, of each Big Five trait scale that varied in terms of length, width, and balance. We then identified systematic effects of these internal scale characteristics on external validity associations. Regarding length, we find that longer trait scales tend to have greater validity, with a scale length "sweet spot" of approximately 6 to 9 items. Regarding width, we find that broad trait scales tend to have slightly stronger, and much more consistent, associations with external validity criteria than do narrow scales; broad scales thus represent relatively safe bets for personality assessment, whereas narrow scales carry greater risks but offer potentially greater rewards. Regarding balance, we find that associations between imbalanced trait and criterion scales can be substantially inflated or suppressed by acquiescent responding; trait scales that include an equal number of positively and negatively keyed items can minimize such acquiescence bias. We conclude by translating these findings into practical advice regarding psychological assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Practitioners and evaluators face several constraints in conducting rigorous evaluations to determine program effect. Researchers have offered the retrospective pretest/posttest design as a remedy to curb response-shift bias and better estimate program effects. This article presents an example of how After School Matters (ASM) tested the use of retrospective pretest/posttest design for evaluating out-of-school time (OST) programs for high school youth participants. Differences between traditional pretest and retrospective pretest scores were statistically significant, but effect sizes were negligible, indicating that both pretests yielded similar results. Interviews with youth led to 3 key findings that have implications for ASM using retrospective pretests with youth: response-shift bias was more prominent in youth interviews than in quantitative findings, youth recommended reordering the questions so that the retrospective pretest appears first to increase comprehension, and acquiescence bias emerged in the interviews. This study demonstrates that the retrospective pretest/posttest design can be an alternative to the traditional pretest/posttest design for OST at ASM. These findings are important for ASM and other youth-serving organizations, which often have limited capacity to survey youth multiple times within 1 program session.

ObjectivesTo understand attitudes towards infertility and willingness to pay (WTP) towards a publicly funded national assistive reproductive therapies (ART) programme.DesignAttitudes survey with dichotomous and open-ended WTP questions.SettingOnline survey administered in the USA, UK, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and China.Participants7945 respondents, analysed by country. Nordic respondents were pooled into a regionally representative sample.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrimary outcome measures were proportion of sample agreeing with different infertility-related and ART-related value statements and supporting a monthly contribution to fund a national ART programme, expressed in local currency. Secondary outcome measure was maximum WTP.ResultsAcross the nationally representative samples, 75.5% of all respondents agreed with infertility as a medical condition and 82.3% and 83.7% with ART eligibility for anyone who has difficulty having a baby or a medical problem preventing them from having a baby, respectively. 56.4% of respondents supported a defined monthly contribution and 73.9% supported at least some additional contribution to fund a national ART programme. Overall, converting to euros, median maximum WTP was €3.00 and mean was €15.47 (95% CI 14.23 to 16.72) per month. Maximum WTP was highest in China and the USA and lowest in the European samples.ConclusionsThis large, multicountry survey extends our understanding of public attitudes towards infertility and fertility treatment beyond Europe. It finds evidence that a majority of the public in all sampled countries/regions views infertility as a treatable medical condition and supports the idea that all infertile individuals should have access to treatments that improve the chance of conception. There was also strong agreement with the idea that the desire for children is a basic human need. WTP questions showed that a majority of respondents supported a monthly contribution to fund a national ART programme, although there is some evidence of an acquiescence bias that may overstate support among specific samples.

It is often assumed that survey results reflect only the quality of the sample and the underlying measuring instruments used in the survey. However, various phenomena can affect the results, but these influences are often neglected when conducting surveys. This study aimed to test the influences of various method effects on survey results. We tested the influences of the following method effects: item wording, confirmatory bias, careless responding, and acquiescence bias. Using a split-ballot survey design with online questionnaires, we collected data from 791 participants. We tested if these method effects had an influence on mean values, item correlations, construct correlations, model fits, and construct measurement invariance. The instruments used to test these influences were from the domain of personality and gender inequality, and their items were adapted based on the method effect tested. All tested method effects, except careless responding, had a statistically significant effect on at least one component of the analysis. Item wording and confirmatory bias affected mean values, model fit, and measurement invariance. Controlling for acquiescence bias improved the fit of the model. This paper confirms that the tested method effects should be carefully considered when using surveys in research, and suggests some guidelines on how to do so., Često se implicira da su rezultati anketnih istraživanja isključivo odraz kvalitete uzorka na kojemu je istraživanje provedeno i korištenih mjernih instrumenata u anketnom upitniku. No, postoje različiti fenomeni koji mogu utjecati na rezultate, a koji se često zanemaruju pri provedbi anketnih istraživanja. Ova se studija bavi ispitivanjem utjecaja različitih efekata metode koji mogu iskriviti rezultate anketnih upitnika. Testirali smo utjecaje formulacije iskaza, potvrdne pristranosti, nemarnog odgovaranja te pristranosti slaganja. Koristeći se dvjema inačicama online anketnog upitnika, prikupili smo rezultate 791 korisnika društvenih mreža. Testirali smo jesu li navedeni efekti metode imali utjecaja na aritmetičke sredine čestica, korelacije čestica, korelacije konstrukata, pristajanje metrijskih modela podatcima te na invarijatnost mjerenja. Instrumenti putem kojih su efekti metode bili testirani bili su iz sfere ličnosti i rodne nejednakosti te su njihove čestice bile izmijenjene shodno potrebama mjerenja utjecaja pojedinog efekta metode. Svi testirani efekti metode, osim nemarnog odgovaranja, pokazali su statistički značajne utjecaje na rezultate na barem jednoj razini analize. Formulacija iskaza i potvrdna pristranost utjecali su na aritmetičke sredine čestica, na pristajanje modela podatcima te na invarijatnost mjerenja. Kontroliranje pristranosti slaganja rezultiralo je modelima koji su bolje pristajali podatcima. Ovaj rad potvrđuje da istraživane efekte metode treba uzeti u obzir prilikom provedbe istraživanja metodom ankete, ujedno dajući određene konkretne preporuke istraživačima na koje načine to učiniti.

PurposeThis study aims to understand if an online dating app is considered an acceptable channel to conduct advertising activities and understand the differences between Generations X, Y and Z for such acceptance.Design/methodology/approachA total of 411 Tinder users’ reactions were obtained and analyzed using text mining to compute the sentiment score of each response, and a Kruskal–Wallis H test to verify if there are statistical differences between each generation.FindingsThe results showed positive acceptability toward the marketing campaign on Tinder, especially Z Generation. Nevertheless, the statistical analysis revealed that the differences between each generation are not statistically significant.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation relates to the fact that the participants, during the data collection, revealed their identification, perhaps leading to acquiescence bias. In addition, the study mainly covered the male population. A balanced sample would be positive to examine any possible differences between gender.Practical implicationsResults provide an essential indication for companies regarding their marketing activities conducted on Tinder to fully exploit the possibility of using Tinder as an alternative and valuable channel to conduct marketing activities.Originality/valueUp until now, no studies tried to understand the effect of a marketing activity online on an online dating app.

When asked to mentally simulate coin tosses, people generate sequences which differ systematically from those generated by fair coins. It has been rarely noted that this divergence is apparent already in the very first mental toss. Analysis of several existing data sets reveals that about 80% of respondents start their sequence with Heads. We attributed this to the linguistic convention describing coin toss outcomes as "Heads or Tails", not vice versa. However, our subsequent experiments found the "first-toss" bias reversible under minor changes in the experimental setup, such as mentioning Tails before Heads in the instructions. We offer a comprehensive account in terms of a novel response bias, which we call reachability. It is more general than the first-toss bias, and reflects the relative ease of reaching one option compared to its alternative in any binary choice context. When faced with a choice between two options (e.g., Heads and Tails, when "tossing" mental coins), whichever of the two is presented first by the choice architecture (hence, is more reachable) will be favored. This bias has far-reaching implications extending well beyond the context of randomness cognition, and in particular to binary surveys (e.g., accept vs. reject) and tests (e.g., True-False). In binary choice, there is an advantage to what presents first.

A combination of both positively and negatively worded items is often employed in a survey to reduce participants’ acquiescence bias, but such a combination may hurt the validity of the survey. The current study investigated the effect of valence of wording on participants’ (N = 1132) responses to four versions of the Undergraduate Learning Burnout (ULB) scale. The results showed that the valence of wording affected a number of features of the scale. The internal consistency of both the original and the original-reverse versions (consisted of both positively and negatively worded items) was lower than that of the positive-only and the negative-only versions. The original and the original-reverse versions also had more factors than the positive-only and the negative-only versions. The original and the original-reverse versions showed method effects from both the positively and the negatively worded items, and those from the negatively worded items were stronger than those from the positively worded items. The method effects were predicted by participants’ subjective well-being and future academic career plans. Together, this study suggests that using a combination of positively and negatively worded items can lead to a predictable response style and significant method effects, which reduce the scale’s internal consistency and change the factor structure of the scale.

Background: A growing number of global health interventions involve community members in activism to prevent violence against women (VAW), but the psychological drivers of participation are presently ill-understood. We developed a new scale for measuring three proposed drivers of participation in collective action to address VAW in the context of urban informal settlements in Mumbai, India: perceived legitimacy, perceived efficacy, and collective action norms. Methods: We did a household survey of 1307 men, 1331 women, and 4 trans persons. We checked for 1) social desirability bias by comparing responses to self-administered and face-to-face interviews, 2) acquiescence bias by comparing responses to positive and negatively worded items on the same construct, 3) factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis, and 4) convergent validity by examining associations between construct scores and participation in groups to address VAW and intent to intervene in case of VAW. Results: Of the ten items, seven showed less than five percentage point difference in agreement rates between self-administered and face-to-face conditions. Correlations between opposite worded items on the same construct were negative (p Conclusion: This is the first study to operationalize a measure of the psychological drivers of participation in collective action to address VAW in a low- and middle-income context. Our novel scale may provide insight into modifiable beliefs and attitudes community mobilisation interventions can address to inspire activism in similar low-resource contexts.

Objective The goal of the research presented in this paper was to determine if the positively worded System Usability Scale (SUS) can be used in place of the positively and negatively worded standard SUS instrument for the subjective assessment of usability, and whether the results found here replicate those of Sauro and Lewis. Background Sauro and Lewis’ previous study found no evidence that responses to SUS items differed across the standard SUS and the modified, positively worded version of the SUS when participants assessed websites. This study replicates and extends this work by examining a large number of different systems with larger sample sizes to add to the generalizability of previous findings. Methods So that participants could retrospectively assess 20 products, the standard SUS was administered to 268 participants and the positive SUS to 698 participants. SUS scores were computed and the data analyzed using psychometric methods to explore how the two versions of the SUS differed. Results The standard and positive versions of the SUS yielded similar SUS scores. In addition, both versions of the scale demonstrated evidence in support of reliability and validity. Conclusion Either version of the SUS can be used with confidence to measure subjective usability. Furthermore, the scores generated from both versions of the SUS can be directly compared. Applications In situations where cognitive load, participants’ spoken language, or item consistency with other surveys being given may be a factor, the positive SUS is a viable alternative to the standard SUS.

Acquiescence, the tendency to agree regardless of the content of an item, is a commonly observed response style that may distort respondent scores. In the current study, we: (a) revised basic concepts of methods for measuring and controlling acquiescence, (b) describe some important properties of balanced scales, (c) examine if methods of controlling acquiescence provide ipsative scales, (d) explain the mechanism underlying the correction of acquiescence, and (e) compare the centering and standardizing correction methods. By using simulated data, we demonstrate that balanced scales are automatically controlled for acquiescence and that the scoring process does not yield ipsative scales. By contrast, the standardizing method of correction in fact undo the correction that takes place when using the centering method.

This study looked for evidence of acquiescence bias, a tendency to agree rather than disagree, in human-automation interaction. This bias has not previously been identified in automation use and its existence could help explain operator mistakes made when interacting with automated decision aids. In the first two experiments, it was as beneficial to agree with the aid in one condition and it was beneficial to disagree with the aid in the other. The third experiment gave participants a 50% accurate aid, which offered them no meaningful help. Experiments 1A and 1B revealed that participants performed better when it was beneficial to agree rather than beneficial to disagree with the aid. Experiment 2 revealed that the aid influenced participants’ search strategies even though they were told that the aid was as helpful as a coin flip. The findings suggest that participants display acquiescence bias when making decisions with an automated aid.

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) has been the dominant measure of life satisfaction since its creation more than 30years ago. We sought to develop an improved measure that includes indirect indicators of life satisfaction (e.g., wishing to change one's life) to increase the bandwidth of the measure and account for acquiescence bias. In 3 studies, we developed a 6-item measure of life satisfaction, the Riverside Life Satisfaction Scale, and obtained reliability and validity evidence. Importantly, the Riverside Life Satisfaction Scale retained the high internal consistency, test-retest stability, and unidimensionality of the Satisfaction With Life Scale. In addition, the Riverside Life Satisfaction Scale correlated with other well-being measures, Big Five personality traits, values, and demographic information in expected ways. Although the Riverside Life Satisfaction Scale correlated highly with the Satisfaction With Life Scale, we believe it improves the Satisfaction With Life Scale by appropriately increasing construct breadth and reducing the potential for bias.

Background Keele University has developed a virtual patient (VP) educational tool to teach pharmacists how to conduct non-vitamin K oral anticoagulant (NOAC) counselling. The VP’s use will be evaluated, but in order to do so, a validated data collection instrument is required. The aim of this study is to validate a data collection questionnaire for evaluating VP uses. Summary of work The instrument is an online questionnaire in a pre- and post-intervention design which considers the VP’s usefulness, usability, and self-perceived ability changes. Ethical approval was obtained. Using a number of guidelines for instrument development the following steps were undertaken in the validation: literature review, questionnaire development, and pilot testing. The validation stage incorporated face and content validity, internal consistency testing using a Cronbach alpha test, and revisions. Summary of results Minor grammatical and typographical amendments were identified and made throughout the instrument development process. The Likert scales were amended to be fully verbal and acquiescence bias was considered in questionnaire development, this helped assess internal validity. Cronbach Alpha results were significant (P=0.932 and P=0.872) and the questionnaire was usable from the perspectives of the participants. Content and face validity were incorporated into reviews of the study design and instruments, and both were deemed to be of a high level. Discussion The Cronbach alpha test had significant results suggesting that the Likert scales of the questionnaire had a high level of internal consistency and in turn, reliability to be used in the wider study, meaning that the Likert items can be grouped together and used as a single overall score.1 Many previous VP evaluations used some form of a questionnaire with many incorporating pre- and post-tests and satisfaction surveys, often using Likert scales. Most of these studies evaluated uses of various VPs and especially considered usability and satisfaction. Although such studies provided a basis for the use of questionnaires they had limited instrument validation. Multiple studies appeared to deploy self-designed instruments and did not discuss any validation or piloting. Many studies did include pilots but with a focus on the technology rather than the instrument. Conclusion The questionnaire had a high level of validity so it can be used for a larger scale study. The Cronbach alpha test was significant establishing the questionnaire’s internal consistency and reliability. The questionnaire is therefore valid for use, following minor amendments, to evaluate a VP. References Scott I, Mazhindu D. Statistics for healthcare professionals an introduction. In: Second Edi. London: SAGE; 2014:32–34.

The Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI-2) is a recently published 60-item questionnaire that measures personality traits within the five-factor model framework. An important aspect of the BFI-2 is that it measures the traits at both the domain and facet levels and also controls acquiescence bias via the balanced number of true- and false-keyed items across the domains and facets. The current research evaluates factorial measurement invariance of a Russian version of the BFI-2 across sex and age within samples of 1,024 university students (Study 1) and 1,029 Internet users (Study 2). Across these samples, men scored lower on the domains of negative emotionality and agreeableness and slightly higher on extraversion. Sex differences were also obtained on various facets. In the Internet sample, age correlated modestly with several Big Five domains in accordance with the well-documented maturity principle. The newly developed Russian version of BFI-2 showed good reliability and validity across both samples. Moreover, random intercept exploratory factor analyses showed that the BFI-2 displayed a hierarchical five-domain-15-facet structure that demonstrated strict measurement invariance across sex and age.

Aim To investigate whether showing a short video on a specific topic could change the knowledge and confidence of carers in caring for a sick newborn. Methods A prospective multi-center interventional study conducted from May-August 2018. Mothers of neonates on the postnatal or neonatal ward at a Rwandan urban district and teaching hospital were invited to participate. Of 65 identified women, 59 met inclusion criteria. Parents were shown ‘How to increase breastmilk supply’ a seven-minute video in the local language from https://globalhealthmedia.org/. The video was shown on a laptop computer. Participants completed a Likert based questionnaire before and after watching the video. Results Of the 59 participants, only ten (16.9%) had previously received teaching on increasing breast milk supply. Likert scores were combined to form composite knowledge and confidence scores which statistically significant increased after watching the video (table 1). Satisfaction questions revealed that all participants (100%) reported ‘I enjoyed watching the video’ and could ‘hear the voice clearly.’ Only 2 (3.4%) felt the video was too long. Conclusion In the resource-limited setting, neonatal mortality remains high, and the ratio of trained health professionals to patients is low. Parents are an underused resource for providing primary neonatal care but require some education to provide this safely. The results show a significant improvement in knowledge and confidence of the participants. There is scope for further research of video education, e.g., to assess if implementation results in improved care and outcomes. Based on these results we recommend incorporating video education into parental education. There are limitations: it was conducted in an urban setting, only women were assessed, and there may have been acquiescence bias.

El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar la estructura facto- rial de la versión en castellano de la Escala Breve de Resiliencia (BRS) to- mando en cuenta la aquiescencia (tendencia a responder de manera positi- va) en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios mexicanos (N = 1572) y una validación cruzada de los mismos modelos con estudiantes universita- rios chilenos (N = 1345). Se comparan seis modelos mediante Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio, en tres de ellos se utilizan diferentes factores de método para tratar la aquiescencia. Los resultados muestran que en estu- diantes mexicanos se observa mejor ajuste en estos modelos, especialmente en el modelo de un factor teórico llamado Resiliencia que tiene dos facto- res de método ( 2 =32.22, gl=7, p < .001, NFI= .98, GFI = .99, RMSEA = .048), mientras que en estudiantes chilenos los modelos que no utilizan factores para tratar la aquiescencia son los de mejor ajuste, específicamente los modelos de dos factores correlacionados y también el modelo al que se añade un factor de segundo orden ( 2 =34.66, gl=8, p < .001, NFI= .98, GFI = .99, RMSEA = .05). La aquiescencia afecta de manera diferencial a las muestras utilizadas por lo que es importante analizar la presencia de es- tilos de respuesta asociados a la aquiescencia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factorial structure of the Spanish version of Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) considering the acqui- escence bias (tendency to respond for one side of the scale) in a large sample of Mexican university students (N=1572) and a cross-validation of the same models with Chilean university students (N=1345). Six models are compared using Factorial Confirmatory Analysis, in three of them dif- ferent method factors are used to treat acquiescence. The results show that in Mexican students a better fit is observed in these models especially in the model of a general factor called Resilience that has two factors of method ( 2 =32.22, gl=7, p < .001, NFI= .98, GFI = .99, RMSEA = .048), while in the Chilean students the models that do not use factors to deal with acquiescence are the ones of better fit, specifically the models of two correlated factors and also the model to which a factor of second or- der is added ( 2 =34.66, gl=8, p < .001, NFI= .98, GFI = .99, RMSEA = .05). The acquiescence affects each of the samples used differently, so it is important to analyze the presence of response styles associated with acqui- escence.

Previous research by Zhang and Savalei (2015) proposed an alternative scale format to the Likert scale format: the Expanded format. Scale items in the Expanded format present both positively worded and negatively worded sentences as response options for each scale item; therefore, they were less affected by the acquiescence bias and method effects that often occur in the Likert scale items. The major goal of the current study is to further demonstrate the superiority of the Expanded format to the Likert format across different psychological scales. Specifically, we aim to replicate the findings of Zhang and Savalei and to determine whether order effect exists in the Expanded format scales. Six psychological scales were examined in the study, including the five subscales of the big five inventory (BFI) and the Rosenberg self-esteem (RSE) scale. Four versions were created for each psychological scale. One version was the original scale in the Likert format. The other three versions were in different Expanded formats that varied in the order of the response options. For each scale, the participant was randomly assigned to complete one scale version. Across the different versions of each scale, we compared the factor structures and the distributions of the response options. Our results successfully replicated the findings of Zhang and Savalei, and also showed that order effect was generally absent in the Expanded format scales. Based on these promising findings, we encourage researchers to use the Expanded format for these and other scales in their substantive research.

Acquiescence is a commonly observed response style that may distort respondent scores. One approach to control for acquiescence involves creating a balanced scale and computing sum scores. Other model-based approaches may explicitly include an acquiescence factor as part of a factor analysis or multidimensional item response model. Under certain assumptions, both approaches may result in acquiescence-controlled scores for each respondent. However, the validity of the resulting scores is one issue that is sometimes ignored. In this paper, we present an application of these approaches under both balanced and unbalanced scales, and we report changes in criterion validity and respondent scores.

This article discusses some various applications of paradata in the form of response latencies in identifying survey measurement error. Specifically, it presents empirical analyses regarding response latencies as they pertain to such problems as acquiescence bias, question order effects (contrast and assimilation effects) and social desirability bias. It demonstrates that response latencies can provide helpful insight into cognitive processes that would be otherwise unobservable. Finally, we briefly touch on the challenges involved with the collection and use of paradata.

In this paper we present the psychometric properties and initial validation of the alternative inventory measuring the Big-Five factor of International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-Revised). One of its main features is that the scores obtained are free from acquiescence bias. The IPIP-Revised has a simple five-factor structure, satisfactory reliability indices (internal consistency and temporal stability), evidence of concurrent validity with the NEO-FFI scales, gender and age differences between groups, and predictive validity of the frequencies of several categories of specific activities. Results suggest that IPIP-Revised is a valid option to measure personality traits in our population, and that it could be useful as an auxiliary tool in psychological assessment.