BACKGROUND Factor-analysis based dimensional assessment of psychometric measures is a key step in the development of tests. However, current practices for deciding between a multiple-correlated or essentially unidimensional solution are clearly improvable. METHOD A series of recent studies are reviewed, and an approach is proposed that combines multiple sources of information, which is expected to be used to make an informed judgement about the most appropriate dimensionality for the measure being studied. It uses both internal and external sources of information, and focuses on the properties of the scores derived from each of the solutions compared. RESULTS The proposal is applied to a re-analysis of a measure of symptoms of psychological distress. The results show that a clear and informed judgement about the most appropriate dimensionality of the measure in the target population can be obtained. DISCUSSION The proposal is useful and can be put into practice by using user-friendly, non-commercial software. We hope that this availability will result in good practice in the future.

中文翻译：

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多维或本质上是一维的？一种用于评估测试和项目维度的多方面因素分析方法。

背景技术基于因子分析的心理测量指标的尺寸评估是测试开发中的关键步骤。但是，目前在用于确定多个相关或基本一维解决方案之间的做法显然是可取的。方法回顾了一系列最新研究，并提出了一种方法，该方法结合了多种信息来源，有望用于对所研究测量的最适当尺寸做出明智的判断。它使用内部和外部信息源，并着重于从每个比较的解决方案得出的分数的属性。结果该建议适用于对心理困扰症状的测量进行重新分析。结果表明，可以对目标人群中最合适的度量维度获得清晰，明智的判断。讨论该建议很有用，可以使用用户友好的非商业软件将其付诸实践。我们希望这种可用性将在将来带来良好的实践。