Acquiescence is a commonly observed response style that may distort respondent scores. One approach to control for acquiescence involves creating a balanced scale and computing sum scores. Other model-based approaches may explicitly include an acquiescence factor as part of a factor analysis or multidimensional item response model. Under certain assumptions, both approaches may result in acquiescence-controlled scores for each respondent. However, the validity of the resulting scores is one issue that is sometimes ignored. In this paper, we present an application of these approaches under both balanced and unbalanced scales, and we report changes in criterion validity and respondent scores.