It was posited that, when items comprising scales are grouped by content or grouped by content and labeled, scale reliabilities will be superior to those obtained when items are randomly distributed in a questionnaire. Data from four samples provided moderate support for the first prediction but only modest support for the second one. Ideas for further research were offered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AnastasiA.Psychological testing. (4th ed.) New York: Macmillan, 1976.
BaehrM. E.A simplified procedure for the measurement of employee attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1953, 37, 163–167.
4.
HackmanJ. R.OldhamG. R.Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1975, 60, 159–170.
5.
JohnsonS. M.SmithP. C.TuckerS. M.Response format of the Job Descriptive Index: Assessment of reliability and validity by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1982, 67, 500–505.
6.
KuninT.The construction of a new type of attitude measure. Personnel Psychology, 1955, 8, 65–78.
7.
RushM. C.PhillipsJ. S.LordR. G.The effects of temporal delay in rating leader behavior descriptions: A laboratory investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1981, 66, 442–450.
8.
SchriesheimC. A.The effect of grouping or randomizing items on leniency response bias. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1981, 41, 401–411.
9.
SchriesheimC. A.DeNisiA. A.Item presentation as an influence on questionnaire validity: A field experiment. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1980, 40, 175–182.
