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Uses and Abuses of Factor Analysis
Author(s) -
Eysenck Hans J.
Publication year - 1952
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series c (applied statistics)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.205
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9876
pISSN - 0035-9254
DOI - 10.2307/2985831
Subject(s) - factor (programming language) , mathematics , statistics , computer science , programming language
Factor analysis, if used cautiously and with a full understanding of its underlying logic, can illuminate many fields of research. It is a statistical method, based on correlation analysis, for combining a number of measured variables into a smaller number of groups of variables: the groups are the factors. They are in no way absolute and the basis of their choice is partly subjective: they constitute a hypothesis that requires to be tested. Examples are given to show the fruitfulness of factor analysis.