Introduction to Structural Equation Modelling Using SPSS and AMOS 1 Introduction Contributors: Niels J. Blunch Print Pub. Date: 2008 Online Pub. Date: Print ISBN: 9781412945578 Online ISBN: 9781446249345 DOI: 10.4135/9781446249345 Print pages: 3-27 This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.Introduction to Structural Equation Modelling Using SPSS and AMOS 2 Classical Test Theory Contributors: Niels J. Blunch Print Pub. Date: 2008 Online Pub. Date: Print ISBN: 9781412945578 Online ISBN: 9781446249345 DOI: 10.4135/9781446249345 Print pages: 27-47 This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.University of Queensland Copyright ©2013, SAGE Research Methods 10.4135/9781446249345.n2 [p.27 1) 2 Classical Test Theory The concepts in your model will usually be rather diffuse (attitude, skill, preference, democracy)—i.e. concepts for which no generally agreed measuring instruments exist. In such situations, therefore, you have to make your own measuring instruments—be they questions in a questionnaire or some sort of test. The first requirement for such an instrument is that if you repeat the measurement under identical conditions, then you will end up with nearly the same result: Your instrument must be reliable. Another requirement—which seems just as obvious—is that the instrument shall measure exactly what it is intended to measure and nothing else: The instrument must be valid. Reliability and validity are the two main standards on which we evaluate a measuring instrument, | will take as my starting point the classical version of the two concepts and show how the use of SEM can illustrate the weaknesses of the classical ways of measuring reliability and validity and perhaps lead to more useful ways of judging these two central concepts. In Example 2 in the previous chapter you met examples of summated scales. You will also learn how to construct such scales and how special computer programs can be used to that end. Page 2 of 29 Introduction to Structural Equation Modelling Using ‘SPSS and AMOS: 2 Classical Test Theory