A comparison of method effects in two confirmatory factor models for structurally different methods

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Volume

19

Issue

3

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publication Date

7-31-2012

First Page

409

Last Page

436

Abstract

Multimethod data analysis is a complex procedure that is often used to examine the degree to which different measures of the same construct converge in the assessment of this construct. Several authors have called for a greater understanding of the definition and meaning of method effects in different models for multimethod data. In this article, we compare 2 recently proposed approaches for modeling data with structurally different methods with regard to the definition and meaning of method effects, the restricted CT-C(M – 1) model (Geiser, Eid, & Nussbeck, 2008Geiser, C., Eid, M. and Nussbeck, F. W. 2008. On the meaning of the latent variables in the CT-C(M − 1) model: A comment on Maydeu-Olivares and Coffman 2006. Psychological Methods, 13: 49–57.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]) and the latent difference model (Lischetzke, Eid, & Nussbeck, 2002Lischetzke, T., Eid, M. and Nussbeck, F. W.Unterschiedliche Definitionen von Methodeneffekten in MTMM Modellen und ihre Implikationen für die Analyse der Validität [Different definitions of method effects in MTMM models and their implications for validity analysis]. Paper presented at the 43rd meeting of the German Psychological Association. Berlin, Germany. September. ). We also introduce the concepts of individual, conditional, and general method bias and show how these types of biases are represented in the models. An application to a multirater data set (N = 199) as well as recommendations for the application and interpretation of each model are provided.

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