Department of Marketing, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Reep 1, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Psychol Methods. 2010 Mar;15(1):96-110. doi: 10.1037/a0018721.
Modeling capabilities for longitudinal data have progressed considerably, but questions remain on the extent to which method bias may negatively affect the validity of longitudinal survey data. The current study addresses the stability of individual response styles. We set up a longitudinal data collection in which the same respondents filled out 2 online questionnaires with nonoverlapping sets of heterogeneous items. Between data collections, there was a 1-year time gap. We simultaneously modeled 4 response styles that capture the major directional biases in questionnaire responses: acquiescence, disacquiescence, midpoint, and extreme response style. Drawing from latent state-trait theory, we specified a 2nd-order factor model with time-invariant and time-specific response style factors and a specifically designed covariance structure for the residual terms. The results indicate that response styles have an important stable component, a small part of which can be explained by demographics. The meaning and implications of these findings are discussed.
纵向数据的建模能力有了显著的进步，但方法偏差在多大程度上可能会对纵向调查数据的有效性产生负面影响仍存在疑问。本研究解决了个体反应风格的稳定性问题。我们建立了一个纵向数据收集，相同的受访者填写了 2 个在线问卷，其中包含不重叠的异质项目集。在数据收集之间，有 1 年的时间间隔。我们同时对 4 种反应风格进行建模，这些风格捕捉了问卷反应中的主要定向偏差：默许、不同意、中点和极端反应风格。借鉴潜在状态-特质理论，我们指定了一个二阶因子模型，其中包括时间不变和时间特定的反应风格因子，以及为残差项专门设计的协方差结构。结果表明，反应风格有一个重要的稳定组成部分，其中一小部分可以用人口统计学来解释。这些发现的意义和影响将被讨论。
