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Why forced-choice and Likert items provide the same information on personality, including social desirability

Bäckström, Martin LU and Björklund, Fredrik LU orcid (2024) In Educational and Psychological Measurement 84(3). p.549-576
Abstract
Forced-choice response format is often considered superior to standard Likert format for controlling social desirability in personality inventories. We performed simulations and found that the trait information based on the two formats converges when the number of items is high and forced-choice items are mixed with regard to positively and negatively keyed items. Given that forced-choice items extract the same personality information as Likert items do, including socially desirable responding, other means are needed to counteract social desirability. We propose using evaluatively neutralized items in personality measurement, since they can counteract social desirability regardless of response format.
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
forced-choice, ipsative data, social desirability, psychometrics, personality measurement
in
Educational and Psychological Measurement
volume
84
issue
3
pages
28 pages
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:85162674703
  • pmid:38756462
ISSN
1552-3888
DOI
10.1177/00131644231178721
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
35557fcc-968f-4248-8cea-b41baab7c341
date added to LUP
2023-05-12 18:08:27
date last changed
2024-06-15 03:00:02
@article{35557fcc-968f-4248-8cea-b41baab7c341,
  abstract     = {{Forced-choice response format is often considered superior to standard Likert format for controlling social desirability in personality inventories. We performed simulations and found that the trait information based on the two formats converges when the number of items is high and forced-choice items are mixed with regard to positively and negatively keyed items. Given that forced-choice items extract the same personality information as Likert items do, including socially desirable responding, other means are needed to counteract social desirability. We propose using evaluatively neutralized items in personality measurement, since they can counteract social desirability regardless of response format.}},
  author       = {{Bäckström, Martin and Björklund, Fredrik}},
  issn         = {{1552-3888}},
  keywords     = {{forced-choice; ipsative data; social desirability; psychometrics; personality measurement}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{549--576}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Educational and Psychological Measurement}},
  title        = {{Why forced-choice and Likert items provide the same information on personality, including social desirability}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00131644231178721}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/00131644231178721}},
  volume       = {{84}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}