Walentynowicz Marta, Schneider Stefan, Junghaenel Doerte U, Stone Arthur A
Dornsife Center for Self-Report Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Centre for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Appl Res Qual Life. 2022 Feb;17(1):317-331. doi: 10.1007/s11482-020-09889-0. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
Comparison standards that people use when responding to survey questions, also called Frames of Reference (FoRs), can influence the validity of self-report responses. The effects of FoRs might be the stronger for items using vague quantifier (VQ) scales, which are particularly prominent in quality of life research, compared with numeric responses. This study aims to investigate the impact of FoRs on self-report measures by examining how imposing a specific FoR in survey questions affects (a) the response levels of VQ and numeric scales and (b) the relationship between VQs and a quantitative responses to the same question. A sample of 1,869 respondents rated their education, commute and sleep duration, medication use, and level of physical activity using both VQ and numeric formats. Participants were asked to compare themselves with the average US adult, with their friends who are about their age, or did not receive specific instructions regarding a reference for comparison. We found that FoR conditions did not influence the numeric responses. Among the VQ responses, only education attainment was affected by FoR. The association between the numeric responses and vague quantifiers was comparable across different FoR conditions. Our results showed that manipulating the use of interpersonal FoRs had limited effect on the responses, which suggests that at least some comparisons do not have a strong biasing effect on self-report measures. However, future research should confirm this finding for using other FoRs (e.g., historical or hypothetical comparisons) and other outcome measures.
人们在回答调查问题时所使用的比较标准，也称为参照框架（FoRs），会影响自我报告回答的有效性。与数字回答相比，参照框架对使用模糊量词（VQ）量表的项目的影响可能更强，而模糊量词量表在生活质量研究中尤为突出。本研究旨在通过考察在调查问题中施加特定参照框架如何影响（a）VQ量表和数字量表的回答水平，以及（b）VQ与对同一问题的定量回答之间的关系，来探究参照框架对自我报告测量的影响。1869名受访者样本使用VQ和数字格式对他们的教育程度、通勤和睡眠时间、药物使用情况以及身体活动水平进行了评分。参与者被要求将自己与美国成年人均水平进行比较，与年龄相仿的朋友进行比较，或者没有收到关于比较参照的具体指示。我们发现，参照框架条件并未影响数字回答。在VQ回答中，只有教育程度受到参照框架的影响。在不同的参照框架条件下，数字回答与模糊量词之间的关联具有可比性。我们的结果表明，操纵人际参照框架的使用对回答的影响有限，这表明至少某些比较对自我报告测量没有强烈的偏差效应。然而，未来的研究应该使用其他参照框架（如历史或假设比较）和其他结果测量来证实这一发现。
