Frontiers of Test Validity Theory

8    Problems in Causation and Validity

Formative Measurement, Networks, and Individual Differences

Connections With Other Chapters

Chapter 6 distinguished formative from reflective measurement models as formal statistical models. Chapter 6 also discussed the idea of network measurement models. Chapter 7 discussed alternative non-causal and causal interpretations of reflective models in which constructs cause item responses (or their probability distributions). That chapter developed three advantages of a causal interpretation over a non-causal interpretation: reason to believe that changes in the construct will produce changes in the item responses, reason to believe that the patterns of statistical association will persist, and reason to believe ...