ArticlePsychological methods2017
In defense of causal-formative indicators: A minority report.
Article in Psychological methods, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed.
- Development and psychometric validation of the Hair Health and Care Questionnaire (HHCQ): a KAP-based instrument for young adults.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Toward next-generation stress generation research: Expert consensus methodological guidelines.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2026Article
- Daily Parental Positive Experiences Are Linked to Better Daily Parenting Practice Through Reduced Stress and Depressive Mood.Family process · 2026Article
- Moderated mediation with composites: The composite moderated structural equations approach.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Organ-system-based psychiatry education in undergraduate medicine: learning outcomes and specialty choice.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Short-Term Effects of Harassment, Racial Mistreatment, and Incivility (HARM) on Career-Derailing Attitudes: An Experience Sampling Methodology Study.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Translation and Clinimetric Evaluation of SIPI, a Brief Instrument for Measuring the Complexity in Nursing Care.Journal of nursing management · 2026Article
- Risk and protective factors for incidents of intimate partner violence among active-duty military personnel.PloS one · 2026Article
- Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Nursing Management Capacity Scale for Poststroke Dysphagia Based on the Donabedian Model.Journal of nursing management · 2026Article
- Reflective, formative, hybrid, and composite measurement models in social science research: a diagnostic construct-measurement alignment framework.Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2026Review
- Psychosocial Factors Explaining Academic Dropout among Scholarship Students at a Public University in Peru.F1000Research · 2026Article
- Modeling health literacy intentions: a structural equation analysis of community residents' willingness to acquire infectious disease specific health literacy.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Self-objectification and commentary on physical appearance predict exercise dependence in young Chinese males: a study from a cognitive-behavioral perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Psychology's Questionable Research Fundamentals (QRFs): Key problems in quantitative psychology and psychological measurement beyond Questionable Research Practices (QRPs).Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Investigating weight constraint methods for causal-formative indicator modeling.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- The role of problem solving appraisal and support in the relationship between stress exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms of military spouses and service member partners.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2024Article
- Brief instruments for measuring nutrition literacy - the Nutrition Health Literacy Scale and the Self-Perceived Food Literacy Scale Short Form.Nutrition journal · 2024Article
- The Revised Sexual Experiences Survey Victimization Version (SES-V): Conceptualization, Modifications, Items and Scoring.Journal of sex research · 2024Article
- Perceived work stressors and the transition to burnout among nurses in response to the pandemic: implications for healthcare organizations.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2024Article
- Diverging death risks: Mortality as a corollary of economic, social, cultural and person capital.SSM - population health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Causal-formative indicators directly affect their corresponding latent variable. They run counter to the predominant view that indicators depend on latent variables and are thus often controversial. If present, such indicators have serious implications for factor analysis, reliability theory, item response theory, structural equation models, and most measurement approaches that are based on reflective or effect indicators. Psychological Methods has published a number of influential articles on causal and formative indicators as well as launching the first major backlash against them. This article examines 7 common criticisms of these indicators distilled from the literature: (a) A construct measured with "formative" indicators does not exist independently of its indicators; (b) Such indicators are causes rather than measures; (c) They imply multiple dimensions to a construct and this is a liability; (d) They are assumed to be error-free, which is unrealistic; (e) They are inherently subject to interpretational confounding; (f) They fail proportionality constraints; and (g) Their coefficients should be set in advance and not estimated. We summarize each of these criticisms and point out the flaws in the logic and evidence marshaled in their support. The most common problems are not distinguishing between what we call causal-formative and composite-formative indicators, tautological fallacies, and highlighting issues that are common to all indicators, but presenting them as special problems of causal-formative indicators. We conclude that measurement theory needs (a) to incorporate these types of indicators, and (b) to better understand their similarities to and differences from traditional indicators. (PsycINFO Database Record
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.