Respondent mood and the instability of survey network measurements

The affect infusion model [Forgas, 1999, Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Wiley, Chichester, p. 591] was used to hypothesize and explain relations between respondents’ moods and the instability of survey measurements of social support ties in social networks of high school students. Two relative measures of network measurement instability were defined. The sensitivity of these to the change in respondent mood was observed by repeated measurements. Four types of social support were measured twice, under different conditions using both recognition and free recall data collection techniques. Changes in respondent mood and the data collection technique were the best two predictors of measurement instability among several survey design variables included in the survey. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.