Posted by
Steve Simon, P.Mean Consulting on
Jul 23, 2014; 9:00pm
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/Asymetric-Interaction-is-this-possible-tp5726799p5726804.html
On 7/23/2014 9:58 AM, Tino Nsenene wrote:
> Asssume you are interested in the effect of x on y conditional on z.
> From a regression perspective, we would most likely use a product
> term in the form x*z to test this interactive relation (while also
> including x and z as separate predictors). However, the
> multiplicative approach implies that we could also use z*x, which
> would mean that the effect of z on y depends on x.
>
> Although this seems straightforward from a statistical ppoint of
> view, from a theoretical perspective it might be important to
> distinguish whether x is moderated by z (Theory A) or z moderated by
> x (Theory B).
>
> I am not aware of any method or approach to distinguish between such
> theoretical differences using a product term approach in multiple
> regression; are there any methodological alternatives?
If you think carefully about the definition of moderator variables, it
is not an either/or situation. Both Theory A and Theory B can co-exist.
Perhaps you are confusing this with mediator variables.
Steve Simon,
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