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Acquiescent Response Set, the Jesness Inventory, and Implications for the use of ‘Foreign’ Psychological Tests
Author(s) -
FISHER ROBERT M.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1967.tb00493.x
Subject(s) - psychology , similarity (geometry) , set (abstract data type) , test (biology) , sample (material) , social psychology , personality , artifact (error) , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , image (mathematics) , neuroscience , computer science , biology , programming language , paleontology , chemistry , chromatography , artificial intelligence
The performances on the Jesness Inventory of 203 English borstal boys are compared with those of American institutionalized boys of the same age. The English sample tends to be described by test scores as more socially maladjusted but at the same time more inhibited against acting out in socially unacceptable manners than the American sample. The result is an apparent similarity between the two groups as to the likelihood of anti‐social acting‐out behaviour. Alternative explanations are discussed for the differences between the test results of the two samples and it is argued that the most viable explanation is in terms of artifact rather than essence, that the tests reflect not the personality differences indicated but differences in test‐taking techniques related to a relatively pronounced acquiescent response set among the English boys. The crucial problem of the international exchangeability of psychological tests is raised.