Imagine That Susan Is a High School Senior Completing a Survey

Multiple Choice

Imagine that Susan is a high school senior completing a survey for your research study. Presume that earlier that morning, Susan received a rejection letter from one of her top colleges. In addition, your survey involves the topic of racism in everyday life. Susan is also an international student, and English is not her first language. You look at Susan's completed survey and notice that all of her item responses lie close to the midpoint of your 9-point scale. Given this information, which of the following threats to validity may be at play?

A) acquiescence
B) extreme response sets - (other students may also respond in similar fashion)
C) mood - (individual differences in mood don't lead to systematic bias, not the same as weather example)
D) social desirability - (survey is on a sensitive topic that other respondents may also respond favorably on)
E) language difficulty - (individual language difficulty is different from difficult language used on the survey, not experienced by all respondents)