Concept mapping internal validity: A case of misconceived mapping?

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the concept mapping technique developed by William M. K. Trochim has been widely used by evaluators for program development and evaluation and proven to be an invaluable tool for evaluators and program planners. The technique combines qualitative and statistical analysis and is designed to help identify and prioritize the components, dimensions, and particularities of a given reality. The aim of this paper is to propose an alternative way of conducting the statistical analysis to make the technique even more useful and the results easier to interpret. We posit that some methodological choices made at the inception stage of the technique were ill informed, producing maps of participants' points-of-view that were not optimal representations of their reality. Such a depiction resulted from the statistical analysis process by which multidimensional scaling (MDS) is being applied on the similarity matrix, followed by a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) on the Euclidian distances between statements as plotted on the resulting two-dimensional MDS map. As an alternative, we suggest that HCA should be performed first and MDS second, rather than the reverse. To support this proposal, we present three levels of argument: 1) a logical argument backed up by expert opinions on this issue; 2) statistical evidence of the superiority of our proposed approach and 3) the results of a social validation experiment.

Factors related to screening for problem gambling among healthcare and social service providers in Ontario, Canada: A concept mapping study

“…The software provides a stress index, which is a measure of fit, with higher values representing higher stress and distortion on the multi‐dimensional scaling map (Kruskal, ). While there are disagreements on the acceptable ranges of fit (Péladeau, Dagenais, & Ridde, ), Trochim has noted acceptable range for a stress index to be between 0.205 and 0.365 (Kane & Trochim, ).…”

Establishing research priorities in prevention and control of vector-borne diseases in urban areas: a collaborative process

“…The concept mapping method developed by Trochim [22, 23] was adapted [24] and carried out using an analysis module specially designed by Provalis Research© (https://provalisresearch.com/). The technique organizes qualitative data using a series of statistical analyses.…”

Using Group Concept Mapping to Develop a Conceptual Model of Housing and Community-Based Residential Settings for Adults With Severe Mental Illness

“…However, once the research team could establish that most statements were important, rating data had very limited impact on the conceptual model presented in this paper as the maps were created based on the participant sorts. Finally, because a statistical package was used to compute the map, the research team did not explore a three-dimensional solution or other algorithm (42,56).…”