An Empirical and Algebraic Analysis of Alternative Techniques for Measuring Unobserved Variables

A comparative and multidimensional analysis of organizational effectiveness

“…There are three basic procedures that can be used to measure theoret ical concepts or unobserved variables. These are the single indicator, multiple indicators, and index procedures (Jacobson and Lalu, 1974). for all items with the exception of those contained in the goal attain ment.…”

Exploratory social indicator model building and testing using multiple indicators within a block-recursive system: a study of the macrosociological determinants of health status

“…The mathematical elegance of causal models, vis-a-vis other techniques, is the result of the rapid development of the social sciences during the past decade in terms of methodological sophistication. As Jacobson and Lalu (1974: 215) contend, the study of measurement from a causal modeling perspective has been "the most striking and significant development" in the recent history of social science. Jacobson and Lalu (1974:216-220) also suggest that activity in the area of measurement can be typified by three approaches: The single indicator approach, the index approach, and the multiple indicator approach.…”

“…Following an empirical comparison of these three measurement approaches, Jacobson and Lalu (1974) found that the multiple indicator approach offered the best parameter estimates. A flurry of recent work, however, has sought to refine the multiple indicator methodology (Hauser and Goldberger, 1971;Althauser and Heberlein, 1970;Mayer and Younger, 1975;Costner and Schoenberg, 1973;Werts, et al, 1973).…”

Evaluation of a Logo computer curriculum for upper level elementary school students

“…There has been much discussion concerning how concepts, particularly abstract ones, are to be represented in a path model. Jacobson and Lalu (1974) discussed three types of measurement procedures used in path analysis, the single indicator, index and multiple indicator approaches.…”