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Tests of Matrix Structure for Construct Validation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Brian D. Segal ,
Thomas Braun ,
Richard Gonzalez  and
Michael R. Elliott
Brian D. Segal*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Thomas Braun
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Richard Gonzalez
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Michael R. Elliott
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
*
Correspondence should be made to Brian D. Segal, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Email: bdsegal@umich.edu
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Abstract

Psychologists and other behavioral scientists are frequently interested in whether a questionnaire measures a latent construct. Attempts to address this issue are referred to as construct validation. We describe and extend nonparametric hypothesis testing procedures to assess matrix structures, which can be used for construct validation. These methods are based on a quadratic assignment framework and can be used either by themselves or to check the robustness of other methods. We investigate the performance of these matrix structure tests through simulations and demonstrate their use by analyzing a big five personality traits questionnaire administered as part of the Health and Retirement Study. We also derive rates of convergence for our overall test to better understand its behavior.

Keywords

permutation testinghubert’s gammaquadratic assignment

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , 15 March 2019 , pp. 65 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-018-9647-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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