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Mokken Scale Analysis: Between the Guttman Scale and Parametric Item Response Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2017

Wijbrandt H. van Schuur
Wijbrandt H. van Schuur*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG Groningen, The Netherlands. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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This article introduces a model of ordinal unidimensional measurement known as Mokken scale analysis. Mokken scaling is based on principles of Item Response Theory (IRT) that originated in the Guttman scale. I compare the Mokken model with both Classical Test Theory (reliability or factor analysis) and parametric IRT models (especially with the one-parameter logistic model known as the Rasch model). Two nonparametric probabilistic versions of the Mokken model are described: the model of Monotone Homogeneity and the model of Double Monotonicity. I give procedures for dealing with both dichotomous and polytomous data, along with two scale analyses of data from the World Values Study that demonstrate the usefulness of the Mokken model.

Type
Research Article
Information
Political Analysis , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Spring 2003 , pp. 139 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Political Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association 2003 

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