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ERIC Number: EJ1118110
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Dec
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1644
EISSN: N/A
Survey Satisficing Inflates Reliability and Validity Measures: An Experimental Comparison of College and Amazon Mechanical Turk Samples
Hamby, Tyler; Taylor, Wyn
Educational and Psychological Measurement, v76 n6 p912-932 Dec 2016
This study examined the predictors and psychometric outcomes of survey satisficing, wherein respondents provide quick, "good enough" answers (satisficing) rather than carefully considered answers (optimizing). We administered surveys to university students and respondents--half of whom held college degrees--from a for-pay survey website, and we used an experimental method to randomly assign the participants to survey formats, which presumably differed in task difficulty. Based on satisficing theory, we predicted that ability, motivation, and task difficulty would predict satisficing behavior and that satisficing would artificially inflate internal consistency reliability and both convergent and discriminant validity correlations. Indeed, results indicated effects for task difficulty and motivation in predicting survey satisficing, and satisficing in the first part of the study was associated with improved internal consistency reliability and convergent validity but also worse discriminant validity in the second part of the study. Implications for research designs and improvements are discussed.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale
Grant or Contract Numbers: ECCS1405173