Factor Analysis (saunders Books In Psychology)

SAUNDERS BOOKS IN PSYCHOLOGY ROBERT D. SINGER, Consulting Editor GORSUCH HARDYCK AND PETRINOVICH FACTOR ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES JOHNSON AGGRESSION IN MAN AND ANIMALS KAUFMANN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR L'ABATE AND CURTIS TEACHING THE EXCEPTIONAL CHILD SATTLER ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN'S INTELLIGENCE SINGER AND SINGER PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN SKINNER NEUROSCIENCE: A Laboratory Manual STOTLAND AND CANON SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: a Cognitive Approach WALLACE PSYCHOLOGY: A Social Science I RICHARD L. GORSUCH TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY \\\ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \\ \\\\ 84168707 W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY PHILADELPHIA LONDON TORONTO 1974 W. B. Saunders Company: West Washington Square Philadelphia, PA 19105 12 Dyott Street London. WCIA lOB 833 Oxford Street Toronto. Ontario M8Z 5T9, Canada 841687-'()? DOACAO ~NICHJUFMG TO ~Cl.~'i ,.,IJ'-''-' {'\C)Cl ". ""A~Cl v " ' ';;;',"1 ,r}r;" FactorAnalysiS-.-·~~';,! _ l.:,~;' 1'> ISBN 0-7216-4170,9 :,r,~i"'·~;_ ,,: © 1974 by, W,'B, Saunders-Company. Copyright under the International Copyright Union. All rights reserved; This bookIs protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system. 'or transmitted in any fonn or by any means. electronic, mechanical. photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher, Made in the United States of America. Press of W. B. Saunders Company. Library of Congress catalog card number 72-95830. Last digit is the Print Number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 ERIC AND KAY y Factor Analysis began the way many books do. When asked to teach a course in factor analysis in the late 1960's, I felt there was no truly appropriate text. The high-quality texts which were available seemed to me not to stress points I deemed critical when factor-analyzing data or appeared to be too difficult for graduate psychology students with only an average mathematical background. My response Was to develop a set of dittoed notes for use in my classes. The notes were part of my effort to make my course effective in teaching graduate students when and how to use factor analysis in their substantive research. To be frank, I also felt that using my own notes would keep the course from unduly imposing upon my substantive research, since it is often easier to present one's own ideas than it is to integrate those ideas with someone else's work. Once the notes had begun, they took on a life of their own. Revising the notes each time the course was taught eventually led to this book. The first purpose of the present book is to enable an investigator to properly utilize factor analysis as a research tool. Such utilization requires an understanding of when the differences in possible mathematical procedures may have a major impact upon the substantive conclusions and when the differences might not be relevant f