Psychometric Network Analysis and Dimensionality Assessment: A Software Review

Abstract

Psychometric network analysis (PNA) has been gaining great popularity over the past decade. As a promising dimensionality assessment method, existing research has shown that PNA is able to outperform traditional methods such as exploratory factor analysis in examining the internal structure of a latent construct, and various R packages have been developed to carry out PNA. Yet, PNA has not been widely used in various fields due to researchers’ lack of familiarization with this method and the available R packages. Therefore, this study aims to briefly review the PNA method, compare different R packages, and provide step-by-step guidance on how to use these R packages to conduct PNA using a personality dataset.

Keywords

• psychometric network analysis
• dimensionality assessment
• exploratory factor analysis
• software review
• personality