Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT
Volume 31, Issue 1, Pages 175-188Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ijsa.12414
Keywords
cross-cultural context; item response tree model; Job Descriptive Index; job satisfaction; psychological assessment; ? response category
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The ? response category has been criticized for its ambiguity. Previous studies on this topic have been limited to Western samples and have not disentangled the response style from psychological traits. This study used item response tree models to compare the use of the ? response category in U.S. and Korean samples. The results showed that the Korean group preferred the ? response category more strongly, while the U.S. group preferred the directional response category (i.e., Yes). Additionally, the interpretations of the ? response category differed between the two groups.
Historically, the ? response category (i.e., the question mark response category) has been criticized because of the ambiguity of its interpretation. Previous empirical studies of the appropriateness of the ? response category have generally used methods that cannot disentangle the response style from target psychological traits and have also exclusively focused on Western samples. To further develop our understanding of the ? response category, we examined the differing use of the ? response category in the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) between U.S. and Korean samples by using the recently proposed item response tree (IRTree) models. Our research showed that the Korean group more strongly prefers the ? response category, while the U.S. group more strongly prefers the directional response category (i.e., Yes). In addition, the Korean group tended to interpret the ? response category as mild agreement, while the U.S. group tended to interpret it as mild disagreement. Our study adds to the scientific body of knowledge on the ? response category in a cross-cultural context. We hope that our findings presented herein provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners who want to better understand the ? response category and develop various psychological assessments in cross-cultural settings.
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