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On a Metric, Unidimensional Unfolding Model for Attitudinal and Developmental Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Mark L. Davison
Mark L. Davison*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Mark L. Davison, Department of Social, Psychological, and Philosophical Foundations of Education, 330 Burton Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Abstract

If stimulus responses are linearly related to squared distances between stimulus scale values and person scores along a latent continuum, (a) the stimulus × stimulus correlation matrix will display a simplex-like pattern, (b) the signs of first-order partial correlations can be specified in an empirically testable manner, and (c) the variables will have a semicircular, two-factor structure. Along the semicircle, variables will be ordered by their positions on the latent dimension. The above results suggest procedures for examining the appropriateness of the model and procedures for ordering the stimuli. Applications to developmental and attitudinal data are discussed.

Keywords

factor analysisattitudespreferencesutility theorypersonality developmentpsychological scaling
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 1977 , pp. 523 - 548
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

This research was supported by a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota to the author and by a grant from the U. S. Public Health Service (Grant No. 1-R01-MH27861-01) to Dr. James Rest, Principal Investigator.

References

Reference Notes

Rest, J. Manual for the Defining Issues Test, 1974, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Kohlberg, L. The development of modes of moral thinking and choice in the years ten to sixteen. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1958.Google Scholar

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