Unrestricted Factor Analytic Procedures for Assessing Acquiescent Responding in Balanced, Theoretically Unidimensional Personality Scales

Abstract

This article describes and proposes an unrestricted factor analytic procedure to: (a) assess the dimensionality and structure of a balanced personality scale taking into account the potential effects of acquiescent responding, and (b) correct the individual trait estimates for acquiescence. The procedure can be considered as an extension of ten Berge's (1999) principal component-based approach, and is intended for scales that attempt to measure a single trait. First, the rationale of the procedure is described for the correlation and covariance cases, and the relations with an alternative restricted model are discussed. Next, additional criteria for supporting the proposed unrestricted solution are suggested. The procedure and the additional criteria are illustrated using empirical data. The usefulness of the procedure in applied personality measurement is discussed.