Home  About us  Contact
 

Taxometric Analyses (taxometric + analysis)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences33%

Selected Abstracts

What Can Be Learned From Taxometric Analyses?

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2001
Thomas A. Widiger
Taxometric analyses can be useful in indicating that a particular set of beliefs, attitudes, feelings, or behaviors have coherence as manifest class taxa. However, there is little reason to believe that taxometric analyses identify latent class taxa with specific etiologies, pathologies, or treatment implications. Taxometric analyses can, in fact, be quite misleading if their results are taken too seriously. Mental disorders are most likely the result of polygenetic dispositions and multifactorial etiologies. The optimal understanding of the etiology, pathology, and treatment of mental disorders is more likely to be multifactorial than taxonic. [source]

Applications of Taxometric Methods to Problems of Comorbidity: Perspectives and Challenges

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2001
Irwin D. Waldman
We share Meehl's view that taxometric procedures hold considerable promise for elucidating questions regarding psychiatric comorbidity. Drawing on examples from the domain of childhood disruptive disorders, we discuss why the issues raised by Meehl are scientifically and pragmatically important and outline several profitable applications of taxometric methods to questions of comorbidity (e.g., estimating the statistical relations between latent taxa). We explain why taxometric methods and other sophisticated latent variable methods are needed to answer such questions and provide examples of how certain statistical methods have been used to make erroneous inferences regarding taxonicity. Several important unresolved issues bearing on the use of taxometric procedures and their application to questions of comorbidity are delineated, including (a) the distributional assumptions of taxometric methods, (b) the construct validation of provisional taxa identified by taxometric analyses, (c) the relation of taxometric methods to other latent variable techniques (e.g., latent class analysis), (d) the potential existence of spurious taxa, (e) the question of "fuzzy taxonicity," and (f) "configural taxa." We conclude with a discussion of analytic methods for characterizing and understanding the covariation between latent dimensions as opposed to taxa. [source]

What Can Be Learned From Taxometric Analyses?

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2001
Thomas A. Widiger
Taxometric analyses can be useful in indicating that a particular set of beliefs, attitudes, feelings, or behaviors have coherence as manifest class taxa. However, there is little reason to believe that taxometric analyses identify latent class taxa with specific etiologies, pathologies, or treatment implications. Taxometric analyses can, in fact, be quite misleading if their results are taken too seriously. Mental disorders are most likely the result of polygenetic dispositions and multifactorial etiologies. The optimal understanding of the etiology, pathology, and treatment of mental disorders is more likely to be multifactorial than taxonic. [source]

A taxometric investigation of the latent structure of social anxiety disorder in outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders

DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 4 2006
Dylan M. Kollman M.A.
Abstract The latent structure of social phobia was examined in a sample of 2,035 outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders to determine whether the disorder operates in a categorical or dimensional fashion. We performed three mathematically distinct taxometric procedures,MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L-Mode,using five indicators constructed from clinical interview ratings and questionnaire measures of social anxiety symptoms. Results from screening analyses and simulated comparison data consistently indicated that the data were suitable for taxometric analysis. The collective results across procedures, consistency tests, and analysis of simulated comparison data produced converging evidence in support of the conclusion that the latent structure of social phobia is dimensional. Depression and Anxiety 23:190,199, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

A taxometric study of alcohol abuse and dependence in a general population sample: evidence of dimensional latent structure and implications for DSM-V

ADDICTION, Issue 5 2009
Tim Slade
ABSTRACT Aims To explore, with the aid of taxometric analysis, whether alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are each conceptualized most effectively as single latent dimensions or distinct latent categories. Design Data were taken from a nationally representative cross-sectional epidemiological survey of psychiatric and substance use disorders. Setting General population of Australia. Participants A subsample of all respondents who had consumed at least 12 drinks in the year prior to the survey and who had consumed at least three drinks on at least one single day (n = 4920 of a possible 10 641). Measurements DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, version 2.1. Two independent taxometric procedures, MAXimum EIGenvalue (MAXEIG) and mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), together with analysis of simulated dimensional and categorical data sets, were carried out. Findings Consistent evidence was found for a single latent dimension underlying the symptoms of alcohol dependence. Less consistent evidence of dimensionality was found for the symptoms of alcohol abuse. Conclusions These findings support the growing consensus regarding the need for continuous measures of alcohol use disorders to complement the traditional categorical representations in upcoming versions of the major psychiatric classification systems. [source]