Conditional Process Analysis: Concepts, Computation, and Advances in the Modeling of the Contingencies of Mechanisms

Abstract

Behavioral scientists use mediation analysis to understand the mechanism(s) by which an effect operates and moderation analysis to understand the contingencies or boundary conditions of effects. Yet how effects operate (i.e., the mechanism at work) and their boundary conditions (when they occur) are not necessarily independent, though they are often treated as such. Conditional process analysis is an analytical strategy that integrates mediation and moderation analysis with the goal of examining and testing hypotheses about how mechanisms vary as a function of context or individual differences. In this article, we provide a conceptual primer on conditional process analysis for those not familiar with the integration of moderation and mediation analysis, while also describing some recent advances and innovations for the more experienced conditional process analyst. After overviewing fundamental modeling principles using ordinary least squares regression, we discuss the extension of these fundamentals to models with more than one mediator and more than one moderator. We describe a differential dominance conditional process model and overview the concepts of partial, conditional, and moderated moderated mediation. We also discuss multilevel conditional process analysis and comment on implementation of conditional process analysis in statistical computing software.