Acquiescence in personality questionnaires: Relevance, domain specificity, and stability

Autor(en)
Daniel Danner, Julian Aichholzer, Beatrice Rammstedt
Abstrakt

Acquiescence, which is defined as agreeing to items regardless of content, is a well-known bias in self-report instruments. This paper investigates the relevance, domain specificity, and the stability of acquiescence in personality questionnaires. Data from two large samples representative for the German (N = 1999) and for the Austrian adult population (N = 3266) were investigated with structural equation models. In both studies respondents answered, besides others, a short Big Five inventory. The three core findings are: (1) acquiescence systematically affects the variance of personality items and biases the association with other variables, (2) acquiescence is consistent across different question types, and (3) acquiescence in personality items is moderately stable over time. Implications for research and the application of personality questionnaires are discussed.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Externe Organisation(en)
GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Journal
Journal of Research in Personality
Band
57
Seiten
119-130
Anzahl der Seiten
12
ISSN
0092-6566
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.05.004
Publikationsdatum
08-2015
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
501018 Psychologische Diagnostik, 501004 Differentielle Psychologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Psychology(all), Social Psychology
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/acquiescence-in-personality-questionnaires-relevance-domain-specificity-and-stability(fa20c6ec-70cf-42a2-bb26-387b124ecee9).html