Evaluating the Construct Validity of Instructional Manipulation Checks as Measures of Careless Responding to Surveys.

Careless responding measures are important for several purposes, whether it's screening for careless responding or for research centered on careless responding as a substantive variable. One such approach for assessing carelessness in surveys is the use of an instructional manipulation check. Despite its apparent popularity, little is known about the construct validity of instructional manipulation checks as measures of careless responding. Initial results are inconclusive, and no study has thoroughly evaluated the validity of the instructional manipulation check as a measure of careless responding. Across 2 samples (N = 762), we evaluated the construct validity of the instructional manipulation check under a nomological network. We found that the instructional manipulation check converged poorly with other measures of careless responding, weakly predicted participant inability to recognize study content, and did not display incremental validity over existing measures of careless responding. Additional analyses revealed that instructional manipulation checks performed poorly compared to single scores of other alternative careless responding measures and that screening data with alternative measures of careless responding produced greater or similar gains in data quality to instructional manipulation checks. Based on the results of our studies, we do not recommend using instructional manipulation checks to assess or screen for careless responding to surveys.

Flattening the Latent Growth Curve? Explaining Within-Person Changes in Employee Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest global crises in modern history. In addition to recession and high unemployment, agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that stressors associated with a pandemic can cause increased strains, including difficulty concentrating, anxiety, and decreased mental health (CDC, 2020). Two general frameworks that explain these stressor-strain relationships over time include stress-reaction and adaptation models. Stress-reaction models suggest that stressors, such as heightened job demands due to the pandemic, accumulate over time and thus prolonged exposure to these stressors results in both immediate and long-term strain; conversely, adaptation models suggest that people adapt to stressors over time, such that strains produced by ongoing stressors tend to dissipate. After controlling for county-level COVID-19 cases, we found that (a) workers in general exhibited decreasing cognitive weariness and psychological symptoms over time, providing support for the adaptation model; (b) on-site workers experienced increasing physical fatigue over time, supporting the stress-reaction model among those workers; and (c) engaging in recovery behaviors was associated with improvements in cognitive weariness and psychological symptoms for all workers. We also found that our Time 1 outcomes were significantly different than pre-pandemic norms, such that our participants displayed lower initial levels of job-related burnout and higher initial levels of psychological symptoms than pre-pandemic norms. Furthermore, supplemental qualitative data support our quantitative findings for recovery behaviors. These findings have important implications for understanding workers' responses to the pandemic and they can help inform organizational practice.

Workplace harassment from the victim's perspective: a theoretical model and meta-analysis.

Although workplace harassment affects the lives of many employees, until recently it has been relatively ignored in the organizational psychology literature. First, the authors introduced an attribution- and reciprocity-based model that explains the link between harassment and its potential causes and consequences. The authors then conducted a meta-analysis to examine the potential antecedents and consequences of workplace harassment. As shown by the meta-analysis, both environmental and individual difference factors potentially contributed to harassment and harassment was negatively related to the well-being of both individual employees and their employing organizations. Furthermore, harassment contributed to the variance in many outcomes, even after controlling for 2 of the most commonly studied occupational stressors, role ambiguity and role conflict.

Who cares and who is careless? Insufficient effort responding as a reflection of respondent personality.

Insufficient effort responding (IER) to surveys, which occurs when respondents fail to carefully read questionnaire instructions or item content, has recently gained attention as a source of inaccuracy in self-report data (Huang, Curran, Keeney, Poposki, & DeShon, 2012; Johnson, 2005; Maniaci & Rogge, 2014; Meade & Craig, 2012). Whereas previous studies have focused on IER as a methodological nuisance, the current studies examined IER as a substantive variable. Specifically, we hypothesized that IER is a reflection of enduring individual differences. In Study 1, we found that IER displayed rank-order consistency over the course of 13 months; in Studies 2 and 3, we found that IER displayed rank-order consistency across multiple research situations; in Study 4, we found that acquaintance-reported conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability were each negatively related to IER; and in Study 5, we found that IER was related to college grade point average and class absences. Together, these 5 studies suggest that IER is in part a manifestation of enduring individual differences. (PsycINFO Database Record

Adaptation-level theory, opponent process theory, and dispositions: an integrated approach to the stability of job satisfaction.

Research suggests that the stability of job satisfaction is partially the result of dispositions (J. J. Connolly & C. Viswesvaran, 2000; C. Dormann & D. Zapf, 2001; T. A. Judge & J. E. Bono, 2001a; T. A. Judge, D. Heller, & M. K. Mount, 2002). Opponent process theory (R. L. Solomon & J. D. Corbit, 1973, 1974) and adaptation-level theory (H. Helson, 1948) are alternative explanations of this stability that explain how environmental effects on job satisfaction dissipate across time. On the basis of an integration of these explanations, the authors propose that dispositions (a) influence employees' equilibrium or adaptation level of job satisfaction, (b) influence employees' sensitivity to workplace events, and (c) influence the speed at which job satisfaction returns to equilibrium after one is exposed to a workplace event. Research and applied implications are discussed.

Insufficient effort responding: examining an insidious confound in survey data.

Insufficient effort responding (IER; Huang, Curran, Keeney, Poposki, & DeShon, 2012) to surveys has largely been assumed to be a source of random measurement error that attenuates associations between substantive measures. The current article, however, illustrates how and when the presence of IER can produce a systematic bias that inflates observed correlations between substantive measures. Noting that inattentive responses as a whole generally congregate around the midpoint of a Likert scale, we propose that Mattentive, defined as the mean score of attentive respondents on a substantive measure, will be negatively related to IER's confounding effect on substantive measures (i.e., correlations between IER and a given substantive measure will become less positive [or more negative] as Mattentive increases). Results from a personality questionnaire (Study 1) and a simulation (Study 2) consistently support the hypothesized confounding influence of IER. Using an employee sample (Study 3), we demonstrated how IER can confound bivariate relationships between substantive measures. Together, these studies indicate that IER can inflate the strength of observed relationships when scale means depart from the scale midpoints, resulting in an inflated Type I error rate. This challenges the traditional view that IER attenuates observed bivariate correlations. These findings highlight situations where IER may be a methodological nuisance, while underscoring the need for survey administrators and researchers to deter and detect IER in surveys. The current article serves as a wake-up call for researchers and practitioners to more closely examine IER in their data.

The dispositional basis of attitudes: A replication and extension of Hepler and Albarracín (2013).

As a departure from traditional situational perspectives, researchers have given increased attention to the dispositional basis of attitudes. Recently, Hepler and Albarracín (2013) introduced a construct that they called "dispositional attitude" and provided validity evidence for a new scale--the Dispositional Attitude Measure (DAM). Although the DAM was introduced as a "new" approach for assessing the dispositional component of attitudes, there is considerable conceptual similarity between it and the Neutral Objects Satisfaction Questionnaire (NOSQ; Judge & Bretz, 1993; Weitz, 1952). In a series of 4 studies, we attempt to replicate the predictive validity of the DAM and empirically examined the distinctiveness of the DAM from the NOSQ. Our findings suggest that the DAM does not consistently predict attitudes (e.g., attitudes toward fictional consumer products, attitudes toward common objects, job satisfaction) after the NOSQ is controlled. As a whole, our results suggest that the DAM and NOSQ assess the same underlying construct and both are valid measures of the dispositional basis of attitudes.

Explaining potential antecedents of workplace social support: reciprocity or attractiveness?

Effects of social support are an important topic in occupational stress theories and research, yet little is known about support's potential antecedents. Based on reciprocity theory, the authors hypothesized that the social support received is related to the extent the employee performs organizational citizenship behaviors directed at individuals and to one's social competence; based on the notion of personal attraction, the authors hypothesized that employees' physical attractiveness and sense of humor would be associated with the amount of social support received. In a survey of 123 high school employees and separate ratings of their attractiveness, reciprocity variables were related but attraction variables were not related to social support availability. Further research should examine reciprocity in predicting social support.

Employee personality as a moderator of the relationships between work stressors and counterproductive work behavior.

The current study, which is framed within the context of the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, examined counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) as a response to ineffective coping with work stressors. More specifically, we examined whether the relationship between work stressors and CWBs was moderated by employee personality. Analyses using data collected from 726 adults employed in a diverse set of occupations found that work stressors were more strongly related to CWBs among workers who were low in conscientiousness, or high in negative affectivity (NA) than among workers who were high in conscientiousness, or low in NA. We found less consistent support, however, for the moderating effects of agreeableness.

Occupational stress and failures of social support: when helping hurts.

Research, theory, and practice generally assume that contact with others, often characterized as social support, is beneficial to the recipient. The current study, however, explores the possibility that workplace social interactions, even if intended to be helpful, can sometimes be harmful. University employees (N = 403) completed an online survey examining three types of potentially supportive interactions with other people in the workplace that might be harmful: Interactions that make the person focus on how stressful the workplace is, help that makes the recipient feel inadequate or incompetent, and help that is unwanted. Results suggest that these types of social interactions at work were indeed likely to be related to worse rather than to improved psychological and physical health. The most potentially harmful forms of these three social interactions were those that drew the person's attention to stress in the workplace. These results indicate that in some instances social interactions, even if ostensibly helpful, may be harmful.

A meta-analytic examination of work and general locus of control.

The current meta-analysis examined the hypothesized consequences of work and general locus of control. As expected, work locus of control generally yielded stronger relationships with work-related criteria (e.g., job satisfaction, affective commitment, and burnout) than general locus of control. We also found some evidence that general locus of control yielded relatively stronger relationships with general criteria (e.g., life satisfaction, affective commitment, and burnout). Regression analysis found several unique effects for both work and general locus of control.