| Abstract: | To assess whether different response patterns were associated with differences in the naming and placement of response categories, 1,000 undergraduate students in educational administration completed a 10-item personal-values questionnaire. Five different forms, each answered by 200 students, were employed, differing only in the response categories which could be selected. Different distributions were obtained, depending upon whether “Undecided” was placed in the midpoint of an agreement-disagreement scale, or separated from that scale. Naming of the midpoint by “Undecided” and “Neutral” also produced different response patterns. The results indicate a need for further investigation of the effects of given scales upon responses before advanced statistical techniques are applied. |
