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EXTREME RESPONSE SETS AS A MEASURE OF INTOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY
Author(s) -
SOUEIF M. I.
Publication year - 1958
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1958.tb00672.x
Subject(s) - psychology , ambiguity , set (abstract data type) , social psychology , social desirability , developmental psychology , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , programming language
A Personal Friends Questionnaire was administered to various groups of Egyptian subjects totalling 1028 in all. This questionnaire is composed of seventy items, each of which is to be checked either + 2, + 1, 0, −1 or −2. Extreme response scores were obtained by counting the number of times +2 or −2 were assigned by each subject. Corrected split‐half reliabilities of the extreme response scores for males and females were 0.92 in both cases. The extreme response set scores are suggested as possible measures of intolerance of ambiguity. A general hypothesis was formulated according to which a social group with a higher tension level would earn a higher extreme response score than a social group with a lower tension level. The theoretical formulation of the problem in this way allowed for four predictions, about the effect on extreme response set scores of age, sex, membership of a religious minority and socio‐economic status. For verification of the predictions, the social groups were matched for age, sex and religion. The four expectations were, on the whole, fulfilled.