In this commentary we first examine psychometric issues in the ambitious enterprise of cross-cultural application of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA). The present reports span a wide range of cultural places. Overall, the PBA presents good face validity and a strong replication of factor structure; future multi-group confirmatory factor…

This article is a commentary on McGill et al.'s (2020) article "Use of Translated and Adapted Versions of the WISC-V: Caveat Emptor." McGill et al. use caveat emptor in their title to indicate that the buyer of an assessment must be careful about the product being purchased, presumably because the seller of the assessment is not being…

Von Davier, Naemi, and Roberts (this issue) present a nice summary of the statistical ambiguity often encountered in making distinctions between qualitative and quantitative constructs. In this commentary, the author begins with two broad points. The first is that the mixture/factor arguments are most intriguing when firmly embedded in a…

The notion that there is often no clear distinction between factorial and typological models (von Davier, Naemi, & Roberts, this issue) is sound. As von Davier et al. state, theory often indicates a preference between these models; however the statistical criteria by which these are delineated offer much less clarity. In many ways the procedure…

Weiss, Keith, Zhu, and Chen (2013a) and Weiss, Keith, Zhu, and Chen (2013b), this issue, report examinations of the factor structure of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), respectively; comparing Wechsler Hierarchical Model (W-HM) and…

Nesselroade, Gerstorf, Hardy, and Ram developed a new and interesting way to enforce invariance at the second-order level in P-technique models, while allowing first-order structure to stray from invariance. We discuss our concerns with this approach under the headings of falsifiability, the nature of manifest variables included in models, and…

Nesselroade, Gerstorf, Hardy, and Ram (this issue) propose to "filter out" idiosyncrasies of dynamic processes at the level of the individual through the application of dynamic factor analysis. The problem that they deal with is that individuals may differ in the items that are "salient" for a given construct, so that the same measurement model…

In a recent article, A. Maydeu-Olivares and D. L. Coffman (2006, see EJ751121) presented a random intercept factor approach for modeling idiosyncratic response styles in questionnaire data and compared this approach with competing confirmatory factor analysis models. Among the competing models was the CT-C(M-1) model (M. Eid, 2000). In an…

Discusses a Viet and Ware (1983) article which presented evidence from which they concluded that a strong, hierarchical factor of mental health underlay factors of psychological distress and psychological well-being. Reexamines the data using confirmatory factor analytic methods to assess the plausibility of their central model. (JAC)

In an argument for orthogonal variables to explain intelligence, higher-order constructs, including "g" as a single thing in intelligence, are suggested to inevitably result from complex systems with interrelated parts. Biological reductionism and other arguments for the higher-order constructs as explanations of intellectual functioning…

In, "Idiographic Filters for Psychological Constructs," Nesselroade, Gerstorf, Hardy, and Ram study patterns of variation within individuals. In this context they make an important suggestion: to test for invariant relations among latent variables, but to allow the relations between these latent variables and their indicators to vary between…

Focuses on anomalies in the O'Neil (1980) data on the factor structure of the Career Factor Checklist. Charges that critical errors compromise the conclusions regarding CFC valididty, and notes errors in analyses based on CFC scores. (JAC)

The purpose of this paper is to highlight some psychometric cautions that should be observed when seeking to develop short form versions of tests. Several points are made: (1) score reliability is impacted directly by the characteristics of the sample and testing conditions; (2) sampling error has a direct influence on reliability and factor…

The paper is a critique of the traditional mode of interpreting factor analyses; it is not a criticism of factor analysis per se. Instead, the author proposes a statistical procedure based upon stepwise regression (SRP). The traditional mode focuses on the largest factor loadings (FL). A factor is both described and named by these heavily weighted…

Because they used an inappropriate statistical procedure, J. H. Kranzler and A. R. Jensen (1991) have not demonstrated that a factor of general intelligence ("g") depends on several independent factors. A factorial reanalysis of their data suggests that speed and efficiency of information processing are important in "g." (SLD)