Local independence evaluation and the use of anchoring-vignettes on the satisfaction with life scale

• Grant number: 15/05741-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Cristian Zanon
• Grantee: Cristian Zanon
• Host Institution: Universidade São Francisco (USF). Campus Itatiba. Itatiba , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/13144-1 - Controlling response style in life satisfaction evaluation, BP.MS; 15/26776-0 - Building a dissatisfaction with life scale, BP.IC

Abstract

Life satisfaction constitutes the cognitive dimension of subjective well-being (SWB), a construct that has been evaluated and included in public policy in some countries. Evidence indicates that besides very desirable, BES is associated with better health, success and longevity. For these reasons, proper assessment of BES is critical to the advancement of the field. Studies have evaluated possible biases that influence BES assessments, however, no study to date has evaluated local independence of items in the Life Satisfaction Scale (ESV), the most widely used test to assess this construct. There were also no studies that investigated the role of scales of positive and negative affects on the responses of the ESV items. This project will address these two points in two different studies and also evaluate the use of anchoring-vignettes to improve the psychometric properties of the ESV. The first study will investigate whether the dispositions of ESV items is relevant and will be conducted with 600 students who will answer ESV with items arranged in different orders. The second study will use repeated measures into 3 groups (40 students per group) that will respond BES scales in different orders and assess whether the presentation of affection scales before the ESV increase or not the endorsement of the ESV items. Finally, the last cross-sectional study with 200 participants will assess whether anchoring-vignettes increase the intercorrelation of the ESV items and improve the prediction of variables reported in the literature as associated with life satisfaction, namely, affects and personality. This project aims to contribute to knowledge about factors that influence the measurement and proposes a new method for the enhancement of life satisfaction measuring . In addition, this project will allow the creation of a new line of research in this program: the experimental psychometrics. (AU)