Zeng Biao, Wen Hongbo, Zhang Junjie
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment Toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 28;11:585179. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.585179. eCollection 2020.
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' ( = 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.
在一项调查中，常常会同时使用正向措辞和负向措辞的项目，以减少参与者的默许偏差，但这样的组合可能会损害调查的有效性。本研究调查了措辞的效价对1132名参与者对本科学习倦怠（ULB）量表四个版本的回答的影响。结果表明，措辞的效价影响了该量表的多个特征。原始版本和原始反向版本（由正向和负向措辞的项目组成）的内部一致性低于仅正向版本和仅负向版本。原始版本和原始反向版本的因子也比仅正向版本和仅负向版本更多。原始版本和原始反向版本显示出正向和负向措辞项目的方法效应，且负向措辞项目的效应比正向措辞项目的效应更强。这些方法效应可由参与者的主观幸福感和未来学术职业规划预测。总体而言，本研究表明，同时使用正向和负向措辞的项目会导致可预测的反应风格和显著的方法效应，这会降低量表的内部一致性并改变量表的因子结构。
