EVIDENCE FOR RESPONSE SET EFFECTS IN STRUCTURED RESEARCH INTERVIEWS

The Addiction Severity Index and NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule da ta of 20 methadone-maintained subjects with ''fake bad'' invalid profi les on the Personality Assessment Inventory, 15 methadone-maintained s ubjects with ''fake good'' invalid profiles, and 158 methadone-maintai ned subjects with valid profiles were compared. The findings revealed a number of significant group differences on both measures with the hi ghest scores for the fake bad subjects and lowest scores for the fake good subjects. These findings suggest that the response sets exhibited in response to the Personality Assessment Inventory questionnaire ext ended to performance during the two semistructured interviews. There w as no indication that interviewers were aware of misrepresentation. Th e limitations of the findings and alternative interpretations of the d ata are considered.