Integration and Domain Specificity of Response Styles: Towards a Better Understanding of a General Response Style

Abstract

We examined the meaning of a general response style that integrates acquiescent, extreme, midpoint, and socially desirable responding. A total of 5,457 Dutch residents (mainstreamers and Western and non-Western immigrant) were sampled. Self-report measures of the four response styles, values, personality, self-regulation, cognition, positive life outcomes, and political views were administered. Conventional, indirect measures of acquiescent, extreme, and midpoint responding were calculated. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported a general response style factor with positive loadings of extreme and socially desirable responding, and negative loadings of acquiescent and midpoint responding with both self-report and indirect measures. This factor was most strongly associated with personality and cognition, and least with political views. The correction of the general response style factor had differential effects on the correlations between scales, with the most impact in more personally relevant domains. We advise against correcting for response styles in self-report psychological measures.