| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Description | The Over-all Agreement Score (OAS; Couch & Keniston, 1960) is a tool created to examine agreeing response set as a personality variable. Comprising 360 items, the OAS evaluates the tendency to agree or disagree with questionnaire items, regardless of their content. It integrates items from well-established tests, including Davids’ Affect Questionnaire (1955), Couch and Bales’ Value Profile (1955), the Authoritarianism F Scale (Adorno et al., 1950), Thurstone’s Temperament Schedule (1949), Cattell’s 16 P.P. Personality Inventory (1957), Rokeach’s Dogmatism Scales (1956), and Bass’ Social Acquiescence Scale (1956), along with over 200 newly developed items. Administered to student volunteers, the test demonstrated high internal reliability (+0.85 Spearman-Brown split-half), consistency over time, and applicability across tests. The OAS correlates strongly with “true-saying” and “yes-saying” on standard tests. |
| Author | Arthur Couch; Kenneth Keniston |
| Affiliation | Harvard University |
| Purpose | The Over-all Agreement Score aims to measure agreement tendency. |
| Construct | Agreement Tendency; Response Bias |
| Instrument Type | Rating Scale |
| Administration Method | Paper |
| Format | Responses are recorded on a 7-point scale (1 = “Strongly Disagree,” 7 = “Strongly Agree”). The Over-all Agreement Score is calculated as the mean of a subject’s responses to the 360 items. |
| Number of Items | 360 |
| Reliability | The OAS demonstrates high reliability with a Spearman-Brown split-half coefficient of +0.85. |
| Validity | No validity information indicated. |
| Factor Analysis | No factor analysis indicated. |
| Age Group | Adulthood (18 years and older) |
| Population Group | Humans; Male |
| Population Details | Location: United States |
| Keywords | Agreeing Response Set; Over-all Agreement Score; Test Development |
| Index Terms | Measurement; Personality Measures; Response Set; Test Construction |
| Reference | Couch, A., & Keniston, K. (1960). Yeasayers and naysayers: Agreeing response set as a personality variable. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60(2), 151–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040372 |
Cite this article
Mohammed looti (2026). Over-all Agreement Score scale (OAS). PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/over-all-agreement-score-scale-oas/
Mohammed looti. "Over-all Agreement Score scale (OAS)." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 4 Apr. 2026, https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/over-all-agreement-score-scale-oas/.
Mohammed looti. "Over-all Agreement Score scale (OAS)." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2026. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/over-all-agreement-score-scale-oas/.
Mohammed looti (2026) 'Over-all Agreement Score scale (OAS)', PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Available at: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/over-all-agreement-score-scale-oas/.
[1] Mohammed looti, "Over-all Agreement Score scale (OAS)," PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, April, 2026.
Mohammed looti. Over-all Agreement Score scale (OAS). PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. 2026;vol(issue):pages.