Abstract

BONFA-ARAUJO, Bruno; FERRAZ, Adriana Satico  and  OTONI, Fernanda. Can careless responding interfere with the psychometric properties of self-report instruments?. Aval. psicol. [online]. 2023, vol.22, n.2, pp.185-195.  Epub Aug 23, 2024. ISSN 1677-0471.  https://doi.org/10.15689/ap.2023.2202.22680.08.

Careless responding (CR) compromises the psychometric properties of measurement instruments. This study aimed to investigate the interference of this response bias with the internal structure, reliability, and correlations between instruments to assess learning motivation, emotional intelligence, and empathy. Participants were 212 university students (84.9% women). For each instrument, a bogus item was inserted to identify CR. Data collection was performed remotely. In the data analysis, the total sample (Group A), with CR, was compared with the same sample, after the exclusion of CR (Group B), and with a reduced group who presented CR (Group C). It was found that there was interference of this response bias when comparing the results of the internal structure, reliability, and correlations between samples. Researchers should consider the inclusion of devices to identify CR, as well as analyze the feasibility of excluding participants who respond in a careless way in order to achieve results closer to the reality investigated.

Keywords : psychometry; response biases; factor analysis; correlation; test validation.

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