Volume 4, Issue 2 (June 2025)                   IJER 2025, 4(2): 1-16 | Back to browse issues page

XML Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Karimi H, Minaei A, Moghadamzade A. (2025). The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on Response Styles in Personality Assessment: Examining the Role of Gender, Age, Education, and Their Interactions Using Multidimensional Item Response Theory Models. IJER. 4(2), 1-16.
URL: http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/article-1-452-en.html
1- Department of Psychology, Sav.C., Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran
2- Associate Professor, Department of Educational Measurement, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba'i, Tehran, Iran , as_minaei@yahoo.com
3- Associate Professor, Department of Educational Measurement, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract:   (990 Views)
Objective: The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of demographic characteristics (gender, age and education level) on answering styles (extreme, moderate and agree) in personality questionnaires and using advanced models of multidimensional question-answer theory.
Methods: This descriptive-correlation study was conducted on the data of 17,994 participants who completed the Neo personality questionnaire. Three different models of multidimensional question-answer theory were used for data analysis, and finally, the generalized multidimensional partial validity model was selected as the best model. One-way and two-way analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses.
Results: The findings showed that men have a significantly higher extreme and agreeable response style than women. With increasing age, the tendency to extreme response style increases and the tendency to moderate and agreeable styles decreases. Also, higher education levels were associated with more extreme response style and less agreeable response style. Furthermore, a significant interaction between gender and level of education was observed in predicting extreme response style.
Conclusions: The results of this research emphasize the importance of considering demographic characteristics in the process of designing, implementing and interpreting personality questionnaires. These findings can lead to increasing measurement accuracy and reducing biases caused by response styles.
Full-Text [PDF 322 kb]   (430 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Original | Subject: Educational Psychology
Received: 2025/02/2 | Accepted: 2025/04/15 | Published: 2025/06/1

References
1. Bolt, D. M., & Johnson, T. R. (2009). Addressing score bias and differential item functioning due to individual differences in response styles. Applied Psychological Measurement, 33(4), 335-352. [DOI:10.1177/0146621608329891]
2. Bolt, D. M., & Newton, J. R. (2011). Multiscale measurement of extreme response style. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 71, 814-833. [DOI:10.1177/0013164410388411]
3. Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1999). The Five-Factor Theory of Personality. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (pp. 139-153). New York: Guilford.
4. Falk, C. F., & Cai, L. (2016). A flexible full-information approach to the modeling of response styles. Psychological Methods, 21(3), 328-347. [DOI:10.1037/met0000059]
5. Greenleaf, E. A. (1992). Measuring extreme response style. Public Opinion Quarterly, 56(3), 328-351. [DOI:10.1086/269326]
6. Henninger, M., & Meiser, T. (2020). Different approaches to modeling response styles in divide-by-total item response theory models (part 2): Applications and novel extensions. Psychological Methods, 25(5), 577-595. [DOI:10.1037/met0000268]
7. Johnson, T., Kulesa, P., Cho, Y. I., & Shavitt, S. (2005). The relation between culture and response styles: Evidence from 19 countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(2), 264-277. [DOI:10.1177/0022022104272905]
8. Karimi, H., Minaei, A. & Moghadamzadeh, A. (2025). The relationship between five personality traits and response styles: A study of gender differences using multidimensional IRT models. Journal of developmental and educational psychology, Accepted.
9. Kiefer, T., Robitzsch, A., & Wu, M. (2017). TAM: Test analysis modules (Version 2.8-21) [Computer software].
10. Kim, N., & Bolt, D. M. (2021). A mixture IR Tree model for extreme response style: Accounting for response process uncertainty. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 81(4), 742-764. [DOI:10.1177/0013164420913915]
11. Marin, G., Gamba, R. J., & Marin, B. V. (1992). Extreme response style and acquiescence among Hispanics: The role of acculturation and education. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23(4), 498-509. [DOI:10.1177/0022022192234006]
12. Plieninger, H. (2017). Mountain or molehill? A simulation study on the impact of response styles. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 77(1), 32-53. [DOI:10.1177/0013164416636655]
13. Plieninger, H. (2021). Developing and applying IR-Tree models: Guidelines, caveats, and an extension to multiple groups. Organizational Research Methods, 24(3), 654-670. [DOI:10.1177/1094428120911096]
14. Rammstedt, B., Goldberg, L. R., & Borg, I. (2010). The measurement equivalence of Big-Five factors' markers for persons with different levels of education. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(1), 53-61. [DOI:10.1016/j.jrp.2009.10.005]
15. Scharl, A., & Gnambs, T. (2022). The impact of different methods to correct for response styles on the external validity of self-reports. European Journal of Psychological Assessment.
16. Wang, W. C., & Wu, S. L. (2011). The random-effect generalized rating scale model. Journal of Educational Measurement, 48(4), 441-456. [DOI:10.1111/j.1745-3984.2011.00154.x]
17. Watson, D. (1992). Correcting for acquiescent response bias in the absence of a balanced scale: An application to class consciousness. Sociological Methods & Research, 21(1), 52-88. [DOI:10.1177/0049124192021001003]
18. Wetzel, E., Lüdtke, O., Zettler, I., & Böhnke, J. R. (2016). The stability of extreme response style and acquiescence over 8 years. Assessment, 23(3), 279-291. [DOI:10.1177/1073191115583714]
19. Winkler, J. D., Kanouse, D. E., & Ware, J. E. (1982). Controlling for acquiescence response set in scale development. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67(5), 555-561. [DOI:10.1037/0021-9010.67.5.555]

Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA

Send email to the article author


Rights and permissions
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International.

The Iranian Journal of Educational Research (IJER) is licensed under the Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Designed & Developed by: Yektaweb