Non-invariance? An Overstated Problem With Misconceived Causes

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Scholars study representative international surveys to understand cross-cultural differences in mentality patterns, which are measured via complex multi-item constructs. Methodologists in this field insist with increasing vigor that detecting “non-invariance” in how a construct’s items associate with each other in different national samples is an infallible sign of encultured in-equivalences in how respondents understand the items. Questioning this claim, we demonstrate that a main source of non-invariance is the arithmetic of closed-ended scales in the presence of sample mean disparity. Since arithmetic principles are culture-unspecific, the non-invariance that these principles enforce in statistical terms is inconclusive of encultured in-equivalences in semantic terms. Because of this inconclusiveness, our evidence reveals furthermore that non-invariance is inconsequential for the cross-cultural functioning of multi-item constructs as concerns their nomological linkages to other variables of interest. We discuss the implications of these insights for measurement validation in cross-cultural settings with large sample mean disparity.

Original languageEnglish
JournalSociological Methods and Research
Volume52
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)1368-1400
Number of pages33
ISSN0049-1241
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 08.2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Because the substance of our contribution is fundamentally critical of the methodological mainstream in the field of measurement equivalence, we are especially grateful to the editor of SMR and the anonymous reviewers for their instructive comments and for letting us pass to publication. We also thank the following colleagues for their invaluable comments on earlier versions of this paper and their encouragement: Plamen Akalyiski, Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Klaus Boehnke, Michael H. Bond, Hermann Duelmer, Vera Lomazzi, Bert Meulemann, Michael (Misho) Minkov, Eduard (Ed) Ponarin, and Boris Sokolov. Any remaining shortcomings fall exclusively into our own responsibility. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Significant parts of this study have been funded by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5-100’.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.

    Research areas

  • compositional substitutability, emancipative values, item response, measurement equivalence, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis
  • Politics

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Analytics and Intuition in the Process of Selecting Talent
  2. Using rating scales for the assessment of physical self-concept
  3. Principled Interpolation in Normalizing Flows
  4. Learning with summaries
  5. Facing Up to Third Party Liability for Space Activities
  6. Extraterritorial Asylum Processing. The Libya-Niger Emergency Transit Mechanism
  7. Comparison of Backpropagation and Kalman Filter-based Training for Neural Networks
  8. How much can we learn about voluntary climate action from behavior in public goods games?
  9. A dynamic perspective on affect and creativity
  10. Investigating Factors on R estorative Sleep Quality and its Relationship with Personal Work Performance - An Analysis of Diary Data
  11. An introduction to sliding mode control for interdisciplinary education
  12. Leaf trait variation within individuals mediates the relationship between tree species richness and productivity
  13. Sustainability-oriented technology exploration: managerial values, ambidextrous design, and separation drift
  14. Norms and variation in L2 pragmatics
  15. Determinants in the online distribution of digital content
  16. Modeling of 3D fluid-structure-interaction during in-situ hybridization of double-curved fiber-metal-laminates
  17. Co-production of nature's contributions to people
  18. Out of the box
  19. Logistische Lageranalyse und Methodenvalidierung
  20. An Unusual Encounter with Oneself
  21. Introduction to the Special Issue Section
  22. An Approach for Ex-Post-Facto Analysis of Knowledge Graph-Driven Chatbots – The DBpedia Chatbot
  23. Effects of strategy instructions on learning from text and pictures
  24. The dispositive factor in a system of inventory-controlled production
  25. Effects of welding conditions on microstructural transformations and mechanical properties in AE42-HP friction welded joints
  26. Digital and IT-Enabled Organizational Transformation - Where Do We Go From Here?
  27. Grounding language performance in the anticipatory dynamics of the body
  28. Tree phylogenetic diversity structures multitrophic communities
  29. Navigating ambiguities
  30. Effects of gadolinium and neodymium addition on young’s modulus of magnesium-based binary alloys
  31. HEPS Inventory Tool
  32. Manufacturing of irregular shapes through force control in incremental sheet forming with active medium