Article

Reference group effects in the measurement of personality and attitudes.

Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA.
Journal of Personality Assessment (impact factor: 1.29). 09/2010; 92(5):390-9. DOI:10.1080/00223891.2010.497393 pp.390-9
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Reference-group effects (discovered in cross-cultural settings) occur when responses to self-report items are based not on respondents' absolute level of a construct but rather on their level relative to a salient comparison group. In this article, we examine the impact of reference-group effects on the assessment of self-reported personality and attitudes. Two studies illustrate that a reference-group effect can be induced by small changes to instruction sets, changes that mirror the instruction sets of commonly used measures of personality. Scales that specified different reference groups showed substantial reductions in criterion-related validities for academic performance, self-reported counterproductive behaviors, and self-reported health outcomes relative to reference-group-free versions of those scales.

0 0
 · 
0 Bookmarks
 · 
25 Views
Data provided are for informational purposes only. Although carefully collected, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The impact factor represents a rough estimation of the journal's impact factor and does not reflect the actual current impact factor. Publisher conditions are provided by RoMEO. Differing provisions from the publisher's actual policy or licence agreement may be applicable.

Keywords

academic performance
 
attitudes
 
instruction sets
 
reference-group effect
 
reference-group effects
 
reference-group-free versions
 
respondents' absolute level
 
salient comparison group
 
scales
 
self-reported personality
 
specified different reference groups
 
substantial reductions