Investigating Change in Intraindividual Factor Structure Over Time

Abstract

The investigation of change in factor structure over time can provide new opportunities for the development of theory in psychology. The method proposed to investigate change in intraindividual factor structure over time is an extension of P-technique factor analysis, in which the P-technique factor model is fit within relatively small windows of time, followed by modeling the factor model parameter trajectories. This article describes a Monte Carlo study undertaken to evaluate the proposed estimation procedure and approach to model fit. An illustrative example is provided to motivate the proposed model, and directions for future research are outlined.