Davison, Mark L.Srichantra, Niyada2011-05-102011-05-101988Davison, Mark L & Srichantra, Niyada. (1988). Acquiescence in components analysis and multidimensional scaling of self-rating items. Applied Psychological Measurement, 12, 339-351. doi:10.1177/014662168801200402doi:10.1177/014662168801200402https://hdl.handle.net/11299/104309Earlier work has shown that when multidimensional scaling (MDS) is applied to item intercorrelations, metric MDS implicitly subtracts the standardized person mean (SPM) from responses. As a result, when a metric or nonmetric MDS solution is compared to a components solution, the components solution often contains one component with no counterpart among the scaling dimensions. If self-report items form a balanced scale and negatively worded items are not reverse scored, the SPM is closely related to several concepts of acquiescence and disacquiescence. In this paper, MDS and components solutions are compared using two balanced self-report item sets. In the Likert self-report attitude item set, the MDS and components solutions were essentially the same. In a set of affective well-being items, the components solution contained a general component with no counterpart among the scaling dimensions. Scores along the general component were substantially correlated with measures of acquiescence and disacquiescence. Results in the second dataset suggest that when the self-report items are balanced and the negatively worded items have not been reverse scored, MDS and components solutions can differ largely with respect to a component closely associated with certain measures of acquiescence. Index terms: acquiescence, attitude measurement, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, personality measurement, response bias, self-report items.enArticle