The Impact of the Polarity of Questionnaire Items on Factor Structure and Measurement of the Underlying Trait: The Case of the Psychological Mindedness Scale

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of negative items on the factorial structure of the Psychological Mindedness Scale and the measurement of this trait among two contrasting groups supposedly different in degree of attentiveness while responding to negative items of this scale. The sample of the study consisted of 66 college nursing students and 188 students from other colleges of SQU. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in five orthogonal factors. The first two factors were exclusively composed of negative items, and the other three factors were entirely composed of positive items. No gender differences were observed in level of psychological mindedness, but nursing students were more psychologically-minded than other students. While nursing students responded similarly to positive and reverse-coded negative items, other students were not consistent in responding to the two types of items. This discrepancy between nursing and non-nursing students was attributed to the formal medical education of the former group, which probably made them more attentive than the latter group in responding to negative items.