Measuring Context-Specific and Cross-Contextual Components of Hierarchical Constructs

Rating scales are often used to measure behavioral constructs. Yet, different informants’ ratings may not necessarily agree. The situational specificity (SS) perspective postulates that discrepancies between ratings by different informants are primarily attributable to contextual behavior of the people being rated. The multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) perspective, however, attributes discrepancies between informants to rater bias, i.e., each informant provides a systematically distorted picture of the person being rated. Similarly, the Attribution-Bias-Context (ABC) perspective also attributes informant discrepancies to systematic biases. Within the context of measuring hierarchical constructs, we proposed a hybrid perspective that takes account of variance attributable to the behavior of the person being rated in a particular context from the perspective of a specific informant. We then provided a parametric representation of this perspective and analyses of mother, teacher, and self-ratings of Rule-Breaking and Aggressive Behavior to illustrate features of the model. Strengths and limitations of the SS, MTMM, and hybrid perspectives are discussed.