Measurement Invariance Tests of Revisions to Archaically Worded Items in the Mach IV Scale

Date

2019-10

Authors

Miller, Brian K.
Miller, Brian K.
Nicols, Kay M.
Nicols, Kay M.
Konopaske, Robert
Konopaske, Robert

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Abstract

The Machiavellian IV [1] instrument, developed almost 50 years ago to measure trait Machiavellianism and still in wide use in personality research, uses item wording that is not gender-neutral, makes use of idiomatic expressions, and includes archaic references. In this two-sample study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on one sample to examine the structure of responses to the Mach IV. In an independent second sample the resulting EFA structure was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis-based measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) tests in a control group with the original archaic items and a treatment group with eight items rewritten in a more modern vernacular. Specific model testing steps [2] and statistical tests [3] were applied in a bottom-up approach [4] to ME/I tests on these two versions of the Mach IV. The two versions were found to have equal form, equal factor loadings, but unequal indicator error variances. Subsequent item-by-item tests of error invariance resulted in substantial decrements to fit for three revised items suggesting that the error associated with these items was not equal across the two versions.

Description

Keywords

Machiavellian IV, measurement invariance

Citation

Miller, B. K., Nicols, K., & Konopaske, R. (2019). Measurement invariance tests of revisions to archaically worded items in the Mach IV scale. PLoS ONE, 14(10), pp. 1–16.

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© 2019 Miller et al.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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