From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Mon 08 Mar 2004 - 22:44:09 GMT
Greetings, all,
Years ago (ok, decades) I did a study within our psych department on how
accurately people were responding to surveys and test instruments. I results
were astonishingly low, and one consequence of the research was that I moved
away from using such instruments and surveys in my own work.
I note the trouble that Khalil Shikaki got into recently in carrying public
opinion surveys among Palestinians. My sense is that people tended to
respond accurately, there, but didn't like the publication of the results as
they could be construed to lift pressure on the Israelis to deal fairly with
the Palestinians.
I don't know of any really good discussions on this subject, and there is of
course a meta-problem in carrying out a survey to assess the accuracy with
which people respond to surveys!
Best regards,
Lawry
> >Does anyone know of a decent review article that addresses people's
> >behaviour when filling in psychometric tests? (i.e. the way they
> >might try to guess what the right sort of answer might be instead of
> >answering honestly, and perhaps arms race style counter-tactics by
> >various designers such as repeating the question with a different
> >formulation).
> >Cheers, Chris.
Frankie: > I was hoping someone else would help you out with this because I
am
> trying to remember stuff I learned in class over 10 years ago. But
> IIRC some of this stuff ought to give you a place to start.
>
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