Are self-description scales better than agree/disagree scales?

Jerry Timbrook, Jolene D Smyth, and Kristen Olson

Questions using agree/disagree (A/D) scales are ubiquitous in survey research because they save time and space on questionnaires through display in grids, but they have also been criticized for being prone to acquiescent reports.

Introduction

Survey and market researchers collecting data on attitudes and opinions have a variety of scales from which to choose. For example, to measure self- versus other-orientation, a researcher could ask respondents to report how much they agree or disagree with the statement, "Helping others is important to me." Conversely, they could ask respondents to report how well the statement "Helping others is important to me" describes them.

Table 1. Exampleof agree/disagree and self-description scales.

While these two types of questions—agree/disagree (A/D) and self-description (SD)—have some features in common, they also differ in important ways that may affect the...

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