Random Responding as a Threat to the Validity of Effect Size Estimates in Correlational Research

Random responding to psychological inventories is a long-standing concern among clinical practitioners and researchers interested in interpreting idiographic data, but it is typically viewed as having only a minor impact on the statistical inferences drawn from nomothetic data. This article explores...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational and psychological measurement 2010-08, Vol.70 (4), p.596-612
Main Author: Crede, Marcus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Computation
Correlation
Correlational studies
Depression (Psychology)
Effect Size
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Measures (Individuals)
Neurosis
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics. Statistics. Methodology
Response Style (Tests)
School Personnel
Statistical Inference
Statistics. Mathematics
Undergraduate Students
Validity
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Summary:Random responding to psychological inventories is a long-standing concern among clinical practitioners and researchers interested in interpreting idiographic data, but it is typically viewed as having only a minor impact on the statistical inferences drawn from nomothetic data. This article explores the impact of random responding on the size and direction of correlations observed between multi-item inventory scores. Random responses to individual items result in nonrandomly distributed inventory-level scores. Therefore, even low base rates of random responding can significantly affect the statistical inferences made from inventory-level data. Study 1 uses simulations to show that even low base rates of random responding can significantly affect observed correlations, especially when the inventories in question assess low or high base rate phenomena. Study 2 uses archival data to illustrate the moderating effect of random responding on observed correlations in two samples.
ISSN:0013-1644
1552-3888
DOI:10.1177/0013164410366686