factor analysis

Question 1

What does a factor analysis aim to do?

Answer 1

reduce a number of variables to a smaller number of constructs.

• Exploratory
• Confirmatory

Question 2

What do the correlations show,

Answer 2

The correlations suggest that there is a number of underlying factors (If they are greater than .30.

Question 3

what is a component

Answer 3

A linear combination of the variables.
The component score for each participant is the sum of the scores multiplied by the coefficient.
- More than 1 is possible, the first accounts for the total variance, a second has the same aim but must be uncorrelated with the first.

Question 4

what is a factor loading

Answer 4

the correlation between a variable and a factor.

L2 = the proportion of variable accounted for by a factor

Question 5

Eigenvalue

Answer 5

the sum of the squared loadings within a factor.
(down a set of variables).
The amount of variance in a set of variables accounted for by a particular factor. (greater than 1 should be extracted).

Question 6

What is the percentage of variance accounted for by one factor

Answer 6

sum of selected eigenvalues x 100 / number of items

Question 7

communalities

Answer 7

the sum of the squared loading within a variable across the selected factors.
THe proportion of variance in a variable accounted for by the selected factor.

Question 8

kaisers criterion

Answer 8

above 1

Question 9

Cattells scree test

Answer 9

above debris

Question 10

plots

Answer 10

simple, bipolar, complex.

Question 11

orthogonal rotation

Answer 11

if right angles

varimax

Question 12

oblique rotation

Answer 12

if correlated, if correlation exceeds .32.

direct oblim

Question 13

order of reporting

Answer 13

Correlations. Eigenvalues. communalities, loadings. rotation. suggests …