Effects of Negatively Worded Items and the Provision of a Warning about the Inclusion of Negatively Worded Items in an Attitude Questionnaire

• Author / Creator

  Riedel, Alexander

• It has been widely demonstrated that the inclusion of negatively worded items in attitude questionnaires can have adverse effects on the responses (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003).The present study examined the effect of a varying number of negatively worded items and the provision of a warning about the inclusion of negatively worded items on the responses of 333 students in a 12 item attitude questionnaire. Five questionnaire forms were used. The results revealed that the varying number of negatively worded items did not have an effect on the responses. The results furthermore indicated that no wording effects associated with negatively worded items were found except for one negatively worded item that exhibited high intensity in its negative form. Another finding was that there is no need for the provision of a warning. The implications of the results for practice and directions for future research are discussed.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Response set
  • Negatively worded items
  • Careless responding

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R32M0P

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.