Investigation of the Agreement and Measurement Invariance Between Traditional and Fuzzy Scale by WHOQOL-BREF
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Chen, Po-Yi
Abstract
In past two decades, researchers have proposed to combine fuzzy theory into measurement in various areas, basing on the difference between properties of human cognition and traditional measure methods. According to their studies’ results, the fuzzy numbers collected by fuzzy scale can provide more consulting information , verify special theory and represent complicated constructs; even if we transform these fuzzy numbers to crisp numbers, the results collected by fuzzy scale are superior to those by traditional measurement in both validity and reliability. However, the comparability of results between fuzzy scale and traditional method is yet to confirm by previous studies. Hence, in present study, researcher use WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version as a instrument to test agreement and Measurement Equivalence /Invariance (ME/I) between fuzzy scale weighted by membership (FPWS), fuzzy partial credit scaling(FPCS), fuzzy graphic scale(FGRS), fuzzy scale proposed by Chen and Hwang(CH) and traditional scale in repeated measurement experimental design, with a set of data from 404 subjects. Reliability, agreement and ME/I were applied by using cronbach’s alpha Coefficient, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient and confirmatory factor analysis respectively. The results indicate that the reliability of FPCS, FPWS, FGRS are superior to traditional Likert Scale(LS) , and all four fuzzy scales show almost perfect agreement with LS at domain level. In ME/I analyses, FPCS, FPWS and FGRS accepted the model that constrained equal factor loading and show no substantial difference on manifest variables with the traditional scale. To sum up, combine the results of agreement and ME/I analysis, researcher suggest that the results collected by FPCS, FPWS, FGRS and traditional scales are comparable, but limited by study’s instrument and characters of subjects. Further investigation of agreement and ME/I properties between fuzzy and traditional scales would lie on other sets of population and research area.
Subjects
Fuzzy Scale
Likert-Type Scale
Measurement Invariance
Agreement
Type
thesis
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