A Unifying Account of Spurious Multidimensionality in Psychological Questionnaires

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F24%3A00139373" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/24:00139373 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.psychoco.org/2024/program.html" target="_blank" >https://www.psychoco.org/2024/program.html</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

A Unifying Account of Spurious Multidimensionality in Psychological Questionnaires

Original language description

Psychological questionnaires, often designed to measure latent constructs, frequently exhibit spurious multidimensionality, particularly when incorporating a mix of regular and reversed items. Existing explanations attribute this multidimensionality to construct-irrelevant factors (such as) or consider it a spurious outcome resulting from imperfections of the measurement model. This presentation focuses on the phenomenon of spurious multidimensionality, a unifying account of why it can arise. We posit that a primary cause of spurious dimensionality lies in an incorrectly specified item response function, where the empirical and model-implied relationships between a latent variable and its indicators differ. Then, when multiple items share a similar pattern of these discrepancies (residuals), a unidimensional model will not fit the data, necessitating the introduction of additional factors to account for the residual relationships between items. An empirical study supported our predictions. Items exhibiting a shared pattern of residuals tended to form an additional factor. Importantly, this factor still contained construct-relevant variance. Consequently, our findings underscore the importance of scrutinizing whether the relationship between a latent variable and its indicators is modeled correctly to avoid spurious multidimensionality. Otherwise, there is always a risk that spurious factors will be interpreted substantively.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50100 - Psychology and cognitive sciences

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA23-06924S" target="_blank" >GA23-06924S: Response-scale format effects on the psychometric parameters of items</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů