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The Journal of Psychology
Interdisciplinary and Applied
Volume 132, 1998 - Issue 2
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Original Articles

Timidity as a Response Style to Psychological Questionnaires

Pages 201-210 | Received 06 Sep 1996, Published online: 02 Apr 2010
 

Abstract

Firm and mild response styles to questionnaires were examined. A sample of 419 North American undergraduates chose among 5 options ranging from firm agreement to firm disagreement to respond to 181 NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) and 64 Constructive Thinking Inventory items. Both mild assenting and firm dissenting options were more strongly correlated (p < .05) with subscales of the NEO-PI Neuroticism, Extra-version, and Openness domain measures than were mild dissenting and firm assenting. The 6 Neuroticism subscales had response option correlates largely opposite in direction to those of the 12 subscales of Extraversion and Openness. A firm assent minus mild dissent composite related more positively to the Depression, Self-Consciousness, Anxiety, Hostility, Impulsiveness, and Vulnerability subscales, but more negatively to the Actions and Values subscales, than did a firm dissent minus mild assent composite. This coherent body of associations suggests a timid style of responding to psychological inventories.

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