MPLUS workshop: introduction

MPLUS was designed to be easy to use.

The syntax, is fairly more easy to use than the EQS and LISREL framework. In EQS is not easy to write shortcuts for writing the equations from factor to item, in MPLUS you can use one line and that's it. Also, you loose the name of every variable, and each time you have to remember who was V1 and V2 and so on; in MPLUS you can name the variables as you want to.

In LISREL, although you can write models by describing the matrix in
the 0 1 form, or link by link, the selection command of variables changes the way you have to call variables every time. None of these is a trouble in MPLUS.

Its a very versatile program

Can Handle from regression, path analysis, EFA, CFA, IRT, HLM, LGM and so on. In general, is a software that permits you to handle different kinds of simultaneous regressions and latent variable estimation, from continuous observed variables, or categorical.

It can change your view on research

Just knowing about the possibilities makes you a better researcher. Learning to do more advanced analyses changes the research questions you can ask, and the way you think about your research topic

This introduction will cover up:

PATH
SEM
HLM
LGM