Item Presentaton as an Influence on Questionnaire Validity: a Field Experiment

This study was concerned with the effects of questionnaire format on convergent and discriminant validity. Two types of formats were examined: the first with items measuring the same dimensions grouped together and the second with items measuring the same dimensions distributed randomly throughout the questionnaire. Sixty subjects completed questionnaires containing items from the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (Stogdill, 1963) and the Michigan Four-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (Taylor and Bowers, 1972); there were thirty subjects in each of the conditions (grouped and random). The random relative to the grouped condition showed superior convergent and discriminant validity, as assessed by both multitrait-multimethod and analysis of variance procedures. Implications for questionnaire validity are discussed.