Abstract / Summary
Drawing on the covariance matrix reported by Ding et al., I reassessed the empirical basis of their mediation model linking care-resistant behavior in dementia patients to nurses’ occupational burnout. I demonstrate that the observed covariance structure can be reproduced by a theoretically different latent-variable model that does not rely on the directional mechanism proposed in the original article. In this alternative account, self-reported care-resistant behavior, psychological detachment, professional calling, and occupational burnout are conceptualized as indicators of a broader construct, core self-evaluation. The results illustrate a broader inferential problem in psychological research: multiple theoretically plausible models may provide equally adequate explanations of the same correlational pattern. Consequently, observational associations alone offer limited grounds for preferring one explanation over competing alternatives. Researchers should therefore routinely evaluate alternative models when drawing inferences about psychological mechanisms from nonexperimental data.