Method Effects
Definition
Psychological constructs such as subjective well-being can be measured by different methods (e.g., self-report, other report, ambulatory monitoring). A method effect is that part of the measurement of a trait that is not shared with other methods.
Description
Psychological constructs can be measured by different methods (Eid & Diener, 2006). For example, the habitual mood level as an indicator of affective well-being can be measured by (1) asking people how they generally feel, (2) assessing repeatedly the momentary mood of individuals in their daily lives and calculating the mean of the state ratings, and (3) peer reports of the general mood level of an individual. According to Fiske (1987), “method is everything that the investigator does in order to obtain a set of measurements” (p. 184). According to Kenny (1995, p. 112) there are three types of methods: raters as methods, instrument-based methods, and temporal methods (having several occasions of measurement). With...
References
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