Constructive Processes as a Source of Context Effects in Survey Research: Explorations in Self-Generated Validity

Abstract

Within the last several years, there has been an increasing realization that both bias and accuracy in responses to survey measures of many types (e.g., reports of behavior, expressions of attitude and preferences) are outcomes of fundamental cognitive and affective processes (e.g., Bradburn, Rips, & Shevell, 1987; Isen, 1989; Schwarz, 1990; Tourangeau & Rasinski, 1988).¹ This concern with cognition parallels the study of context and framing effects in judgment and decision making (e.g., Hogarth, 1982, 1987; Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982) and the general interest in response construction processes within cognition and social cognition (e.g., Barsalou, 1987; Higgins, 1989b; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986b; Srull & Wyer, 1989; T. D. Wilson, Dunn, Kraft, & Lisle, 1989). Research in “contingent decision processes,” as exemplified by J. W. Payne (1982), Feldman and Lindell (1990), and Biehal and Chakravarti (1983), is part of the same theme.