An Inconsistency Responding Scale for the Durand Adaptive Psychopathic Traits Questionnaire

Abstract

Careless and inconsistent responding is a common issue with self-reported instruments, observed in approximately 10% of respondents. The purpose of this study was to develop an Inconsistency Responding Scale (IRS) for the Durand Adaptive Psychopathic Traits Questionnaire (DAPTQ). First, a derivation sample (N = 525) was used to develop the IRS-DAPTQ, a scale generating a total score from the absolute difference of 12 pairs of items with high intra-correlation. Second, the validity of the IRS-DAPTQ was assessed using human (N = 943) and randomly generated (N = 1,000) data. The IRS-DAPTQ successfully differentiated human data from randomly generated data. The IRS-DAPTQ scores showed a negative association with conscientiousness and had higher specificity for a sample of the general population recruited online than for a sample of undergraduate students. These findings support the usefulness of the IRS-DAPTQ for identifying individuals displaying an inconsistent responding style.