Wells-Parker E, Anderson B, Pang M, Timken D
Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Mississippi 39762.
J Stud Alcohol. 1993 Mar;54(2):209-18. doi: 10.15288/jsa.1993.54.209.
This study examines the utility of cluster-based classification schemes for DUI offenders. Variables from previous empirical typologies and multiple domains were used in a series of cluster analyses in order to examine replicability across independent samples, across clustering algorithms and across sets of psychometric indicators. The arbitrary nature of cluster solutions and the external validity of cluster-based schemes, with respect to an outcome criterion constructed synthetically from earlier research, was examined. Only three of eight cluster techniques (Ward's, K means, and complete linkage) yielded meaningful results. For these techniques, replicability was poor across samples, algorithms and sets of psychometric indicators. Results indicated that identified clusters were arbitrary. Although external validity analysis yielded positive results, the possibility that external validity was a function of underlying dimensions was discussed, as were other implications of the findings.
本研究考察了基于聚类的分类方案对酒后驾车 offenders 的效用。在一系列聚类分析中使用了先前实证类型学和多个领域的变量，以便检验在独立样本、聚类算法和心理测量指标集之间的可重复性。考察了聚类解决方案的任意性以及基于聚类的方案相对于根据早期研究综合构建的结果标准的外部有效性。八种聚类技术中只有三种（Ward 法、K 均值法和完全连锁法）产生了有意义的结果。对于这些技术，在样本、算法和心理测量指标集之间的可重复性较差。结果表明，所识别的聚类是任意的。虽然外部有效性分析产生了积极结果，但讨论了外部有效性是潜在维度函数的可能性以及研究结果的其他含义。
