The Graded Response Differential Discrimination Model Accounting for Extreme Response Style

ABSTRACTExtreme response style or, more generally, individual differences in response spacing have been shown to be an influential bias when analyzing questionnaire data. Recently a promising model adjusting for this bias — the differential discrimination model — has been proposed. An advantage to other related approaches is that the model can be fitted using standard structural equation modeling software. However, the model is designed for analyzing continuous item responses, whereas graded response formats are certainly more prominent in behavioral sciences. To resolve this limitation, the present article extends the differential discrimination model to analyzing graded responses. Empirical examples as well as a small simulation study are presented.