Rater biases in genetically informative research designs: comment on Bartels, Boomsma, Hudziak, van Beijsterveldt, and van den Oord (2007).
Rater biases are of interest to behavior genetic researchers, who often use ratings data as a basis for studying heritability. Inclusion of multiple raters for each sibling pair (M. Bartels, D. I. Boomsma, J. J. Hudziak, T. C. E. M. van Beijsterveldt, & E. J. C. G. van den Oord, see record 2007-18729-006) is a promising strategy for controlling bias variance and may yield information about sources of bias in heritability studies. D. A. Kenny's (2004) PERSON model is presented as a framework for understanding determinants of rating reliability and validity. Empirical findings on rater bias in other contexts provide a starting point for addressing the impact of rater-unique perceptions in heritability studies. However, heritability studies use distinctive rating designs that may accentuate some sources of bias, such as rater communication and contrast effects, which warrant further study.
Hoyt
William T
WT
Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. wthoyt@education.wisc.edu
D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015588:Observer Variation; D012107:Research Design