When Two Factors Don’t Reflect Two Constructs: How Item Characteristics Can Produce Artifactual Factors
研究发现，包含正反方向题目的量表在因子分析中常出现两个因素，每个因素只包含同一方向的题目。通过工作满意度数据和模拟数据，展示了这种人为因素结构如何由题目方向和极端性产生，而非存在两个不同构念。
Factor analyses of scales that contain items written in opposite directions sometimes show two factors, each of which contains items written in only one direction. Such item direction factors have been found in scales of affect and personality that have been used in organizational research. We discuss how patterns of subject responses to items that vary in direction and extremity can produce an arttfactual two factor structure in the absence of multiple constructs. Response patterns are demonstrated in Study 1 with job satisfaction data gathered from employed subjects. The production of two factors is illustrated in Study 2 with simulated data based on item response characteristic equations.