Methodology Guide
Scale Development, From Start to Finish
From construct extraction to EFA, CFA, validity testing, and methodology section drafting. A stage-by-stage guide to the modidoc pipeline.
- C5June 29, 20268 min read
What to Do When CFA Fit Indices Fall Short — A Complete Guide to Judging CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR
Thresholds for CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR, plus five real judgment cases. Covers how to respond when CFA fit falls short of the criteria and how far you can reasonably go with modification indices.
- C5June 20, 20269 min read
We Re-Validated a Published Scale — A Reproduction Analysis of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES)
We reproduced the validation of the 60-year-old Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) on public response data. Cronbach's alpha matched the literature, and the dimensionality debate, the Item 8 problem, and the single-factor CFA misfit all surfaced exactly as reported. A real case of scale reproduction testing.
- C4June 12, 20268 min read
EFA Pre-Check Before Data Collection — Cronbach's Alpha, KMO, and Deciding the Number of Factors
Explains how to confirm suitability with the KMO and Bartlett's test before running an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), how to decide the number of factors with parallel analysis, and how to check internal consistency against the Cronbach's alpha threshold.
- C3June 12, 20267 min read
What Is Cognitive Interviewing? How to Solve Survey Items That Respondents Read Differently
Explains the concept of cognitive interviewing and the Think-Aloud and Probing techniques, how to detect interpretation mismatches in survey items in advance, and the recommended number of participants.
- C2May 26, 202610 min read
Survey Item Design — Item Generation, Linguistic Flaw Detection, and Common Method Bias Prevention
How to generate Likert-scale items from factor definitions, detect double negatives, double-barreled questions, and leading language, and prevent common method bias through reverse items, marker variables, and design-stage controls.
- C1May 26, 20267 min read
Construct Extraction and Factor Structuring — A Complete Guide to Scale Development Step 1
How to extract measurable constructs from a research abstract, define factors operationally, and validate content validity using CVR and CVI before writing a single survey item.