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THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PRINCIPAL FACTOR ANALYSIS, CANONICAL FACTOR ANALYSIS, AND ALPHA FACTOR ANALYSIS
Author(s) -
McDonald Roderick P.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0007-1102
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1970.tb00432.x
Subject(s) - factoring , mathematics , principal component analysis , canonical correlation , econometrics , variance (accounting) , statistics , factor (programming language) , contrast (vision) , canonical analysis , factor analysis , computer science , artificial intelligence , economics , accounting , finance , programming language
It is shown that PFA, CFA and AFA are particular cases of a scale‐invariant factoring procedure based on variance ratios of certain weighted combinations of variables. Standard derivations in the literature are shown, in contrast, to have unsatisfactory features. It is suggested that the choice between PFA, CFA and AFA involves relatively independent choices of features of each, and that in most cases CFA is to be preferred.