creator Huang, Jialin advisor Mead, Alan This study meta-analyzed IRT item discrimination parameter estimates and CFA item loadings to explore the methodological effect of negatively-worded items in personality measures. We found three important moderators that determined whether the negatively-worded item effect affected a scale. The first moderator was the manner in which the scale was defined. We found a strong negatively-worded item effect for Neuroticism but not for Emotional Stability. The personality scale was also a moderator, with a negatively-worded item effect being observed for Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness but a positively-worded item effect for Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness. Third, low-motivation samples tended to produce a larger negatively-worded item effect. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between personality and non-personality inventories regarding the negatively-worded item effect. Finally, item negation did not produce the expected effect. Practical implications and limitations of the study are discussed. Submitted by Erma Thomas (thomase@iit.edu) on 2015-09-16T21:13:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 150419DissertationFinalSignedfor CD.pdf: 3967855 bytes, checksum: e4bf5a8823bb2d4f885e50e60f977721 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-16T21:13:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 150419DissertationFinalSignedfor CD.pdf: 3967855 bytes, checksum: e4bf5a8823bb2d4f885e50e60f977721 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05 Ph.D. in Psychology, May 2015 2015 2015-05 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/3547 en Dissertation born digital application/pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access PSYCH / Institute of Psychology Illinois Institute of Technology Affiliated department