Jl. Mathias et al., NEED FOR THEORY-BASED METHODS TO TEST THEORY-BASED QUESTIONS - REPLY, Research in developmental disabilities, 17(2), 1996, pp. 153-160
Greenspan and McGrew have argued that confirmatory, rather than explor
atory, factor analysis should be applied to Mathias and Nettelbeck's 1
992 data in order to test Greenspan's model of adaptive intelligence.
We do not agree with this argument and draw attention to inconsistenci
es in Greenspan and McGrew's reasoning, which, we believe, confirm our
opinion that this is not a straightforward matter. Moreover; we quest
ion Greenspan and McCrew's assertion that their reanalysis provides st
rong support for Greenspan's model. an the contrary, although the fact
or structure reported by them is supportable, the extraction of a sing
le factor representing general competence or general intelligence is,
if anything, a more stable solution. Greenspan and McGrew have pointed
to problems with the original data set, and we agree in part with the
ir analysis of these shortcomings. Some difficulties are, however; inh
erent in the nature of the available test procedures. We believe that
such difficulties are better addressed by further research rather than
by applying different analytical procedures to existing data.