PROCESS 3 - Model Templates:

The most important models for mediation, moderation and moderated mediation with Hayes' SPSS macro

Arndt Regorz, Dipl. Kfm. & M.Sc. Psychologie, 09/16/2019


Hayes' PROCESS macro for SPSS (Hayes, n.d.) has become the de facto standard for modern mediation and moderation analyses. This tutorial shows the most important and popular model templates for PROCESS Version 3.

This short overview over different model templates for the PROCESS macro is based on the appendix A from Hayes' excellent book Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2017). If you are writing you master's thesis or dissertation based on PROCESS I can highly recommend reading this book. You will get much more in depth information about this topic than a short tutorial like this (or other similar ones) on the internet can give you.

I have limited this tutorial to the simpler model templates:

  • Moderation
  • Mediation
  • Moderated mediation with one moderator and one moderated indirect path (a-path or b-path), only

If you want to run more sophisticated models (e.g. moderated mediation with two moderators) you will find the necessary information in Hayes' book.

Content

  1. Moderation
  2. Mediation
  3. Moderated mediation (moderation of the a-path)
  4. Moderated mediation (moderation of the b-path)
  5. References

1. Moderation

If you want to run a moderation analysis you can choose from three different models:

  • One moderator: model 1
  • Two independent moderators: model 2
  • Two interacting moderators (moderated moderation): model 3

Model 1 (one moderator):

image PROCESS_model_1


Model 2 (two independent moderators):

image PROCESS_model_2


Model 3 (two interacting moderators):

image PROCESS_model_3


2. Mediation

If you want to run a mediation analysis you can choose from three different models:

  • Simple mediation: model 4. This template can also be used for parallel mediation.
  • Mediation with a moderated direct effect: model 5
  • Sequential mediation: model 6

Model 4 (Simple mediation):

image PROCESS_model_4


Model 4 (Parallel mediation):
(Here shown with two parallel mediators only, but you can test more than two)

image PROCESS_model_4_parallel


Model 5 (Mediation with moderated direct path):

image PROCESS_model_5


Model 6 (Serial mediation):

image PROCESS_model_6


3. Moderated mediation with moderation of the a-path

These models have an a-path (independent variable to mediator) that is moderated. Here, I show the two simple models with one moderator only. For more complex models see Hayes (2017).

Model 7 (Moderated mediation with moderation of the a-path but not the c'-path/direct effect)

image PROCESS_model_7.jpg


Model 8 (Moderated mediation with moderation of the a-path and the c'-path/direct effect)

image PROCESS_model_8


4. Moderated mediation with moderation of the b-path

These models have a b-path (mediator to dependent variable) that is moderated. Here, I show the two simple models with one moderator only. For more complex models see Hayes (2017).

Model 14 (Moderated mediation with moderation of the b-path but not the c'-path/direct effect)

image PROCESS_model_14.jpg


Model 15 (Moderated mediation with moderation of the b-path and the c'-path/direct effect)

image PROCESS_model_15


5. References

Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.

Hayes, A. F. (n.d.). PROCESS (Computer Software). Retrieved from https://www.processmacro.org/download.html


Additional tutorials about the PROCESS macro in general