USING LISREL FOR STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING 1.

Open data file in SPSS, and generate a correlation matrix:

2. Once you have the output, cut and paste it to the Notepad utility (this will remove all formatting, etc. from the table):
Correlations info info Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N comp Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N arith Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N simil Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N vocab Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N digit Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N pictcomp Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N parang Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N block Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N object Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N coding Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 1 . 175 .467 .000 175 .494 .000 175 .513 .000 175 .625 .000 175 .345 .000 175 .230 .002 175 .202 .007 175 .229 .002 175 .185 .014 175 .007 .926 175 comp .467 .000 175 1 . 175 .392 .000 175 .510 .000 175 .531 .000 175 .236 .002 175 .407 .000 175 .187 .013 175 .369 .000 175 .322 .000 175 .061 .425 175 arith .494 .000 175 .392 .000 175 1 . 175 .369 .000 175 .387 .000 175 .269 .000 175 .155 .040 175 .227 .003 175 .272 .000 175 .043 .573 175 .090 .235 175 simil .513 .000 175 .510 .000 175 .369 .000 175 1 . 175 .538 .000 175 .260 .001 175 .369 .000 175 .298 .000 175 .261 .000 175 .269 .000 175 -.041 .593 175 vocab .625 .000 175 .531 .000 175 .387 .000 175 .538 .000 175 1 . 175 .294 .000 175 .285 .000 175 .132 .081 175 .297 .000 175 .185 .014 175 .100 .188 175 digit .345 .000 175 .236 .002 175 .269 .000 175 .260 .001 175 .294 .000 175 1 . 175 .075 .322 175 .148 .050 175 .073 .339 175 .035 .648 175 .173 .022 175 pictcomp .230 .002 175 .407 .000 175 .155 .040 175 .369 .000 175 .285 .000 175 .075 .322 175 1 . 175 .249 .001 175 .382 .000 175 .363 .000 175 -.072 .345 175 parang .202 .007 175 .187 .013 175 .227 .003 175 .298 .000 175 .132 .081 175 .148 .050 175 .249 .001 175 1 . 175 .351 .000 175 .253 .001 175 .038 .619 175 block .229 .002 175 .369 .000 175 .272 .000 175 .261 .000 175 .297 .000 175 .073 .339 175 .382 .000 175 .351 .000 175 1 . 175 .399 .000 175 .107 .159 175 object .185 .014 175 .322 .000 175 .043 .573 175 .269 .000 175 .185 .014 175 .035 .648 175 .363 .000 175 .253 .001 175 .399 .000 175 1 . 175 .053 .486 175 coding .007 .926 175 .061 .425 175 .090 .235 175 -.041 .593 175 .100 .188 175 .173 .022 175 -.072 .345 175 .038 .619 175 .107 .159 175 .053 .486 175 1 . 175

3. Delete all of the extra information from the text file, including the variable names, so that only the correlations are left: 1 .467 .467 .494 .513 .625 .345 .230 .202 .229 .185 .007 .494 1 .392 .510 .531 .236 .407 .187 .369 .322 .061 .513 .392 1 .369 .387 .269 .155 .227 .272 .043 .090 .625 .510 .369 1 .538 .260 .369 .298 .261 .269 -.041 .345 .531 .387 .538 1 .294 .285 .132 .297 .185 .100 .230 .236 .269 .260 .294 1 .075 .148 .073 .035 .173 .202 .407 .155 .369 .285 .075 1 .249 .382 .363 -.072 .229 .187 .227 .298 .132 .148 .249 1 .351 .253 .038 .185 .369 .272 .261 .297 .073 .382 .351 1 .399 .107 .007 .322 .043 .269 .185 .035 .363 .253 .399 1 .053

.061 .090 -.041 .100 .173 -.072 .038 .107 .053 1

4. Save as a text file (.txt) 5. Open the LISREL program from the Start Menu 6. Choose File-New, and then select Path Diagram (its hiding at the bottom of the list you will have to use the scroll bars to find it):

7. Save the new path diagram (give it a file name and location) 8. Go to the Setup menu, and start with Title and Comments. At each step, hit Next to go on to the next step, until you have completed all four steps:

9. For Group Labels, you can just hit next if all your variables are I/R level. 10. For Variables, name the variables from your original SPSS dataset. They have to be in the same order as they appear in the correlation matrix.

11. use the Delete key on the keyboard (not Ctrl-X), to delete the two default variables that LISREL puts in your list, or else rename these variables to the names of the variables in your data file. 12. create as many latent variables as you want to include in the model, and give them whatever names you want. 13. link the variable names to the data file with the correlation matrix:

statistics from and matrix to be analyzed should both be set to correlations from the drop-down menus file type should be set to external ASCII data, and then you can locate the text file with the correlation matrix using the browse button. Specify your sample size under number of observations. This is a key step if you forget it, you will get a model does not converge error at the end of the process.

14. Hit OK to continue, and you will return to the drawing window. Draw your model by dragging the observed and latent variables onto the graph-paper screen. LISREL will automatically add an error term for each observed variable (unlike AMOS, where you have to create them manually).

15. To clean up the drawing, select objects using the select box tool, and then right-click the graph paper screen near these objects (but not on them). Use the align and even space tools to clean up the diagram.

16. To specify a covariance between two variables (e.g., between the two latent variables), draw the curving arrow between the error terms on those variables. 17. Under the Setup menu, choose build SIMPLIS syntax.

18. Once the syntax is generated, click the run LISREL button to test the model.

19. The output will show you the path diagram and the chi-square goodness-of-fit test, as well as the RMSEA test. RMSEA of .05 or less indicates a good fit, with values between .1 and .05 being marginal. Ideally, the chi-square statistics pvalue should be greater than .05 (chi-square is used here as a badness of fit statistic), but with large samples this is not always going to happen. RMSEA adjusts for the complexity of the model and the size of the sample.

20. Additional measures of goodness-of-fit can be obtained by going to Fit Indices under the Output menu. See notes on AMOS for definitions of the various fit indices and how to interpret them.

There is also an output file created by running the syntax (shrink the path diagram to see it), which shows you the same goodness-of-fit tests and suggests additional paths that might improve the model. 21. If you are not satisfied with the level of fit obtained, improve the model by adding or removing variables, changing specified relationships, etc. 22. The easiest way to get the model as an image for a Word document seems to be this: turn off the gridlines (under the View menu), move the toolbars out of the way, and do a print screen (Ctrl-Print Screen key). Then go to Word and paste the image, and crop out anything but the picture of the path diagram. [There is an export to metafile option under the File menu that should save the path diagram in an image format without doing these manipulations, but I havent been able to get it to work].