Derivation of theory by means of factor analysis or Tom Swift and his electric factor analysis machine

J. Armstrong

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Problems in the use of factor analysis for deriving theory are illustrated by means of an example in which the underlying factors are known. The actual underlying model is simple and it provides a perfect explanation of the data. While the factor analysis "explains" a large proportion of the total variance, it fails to identify the known factors in the model. The illustration is used to emphasize that factor analysis, by itself, may be misleading as far as the development of theory is concerned. The use of a comprehensive, and explicit à priori analysis is proposed so that there will be independent criteria for the evaluation of the factor analytic results.

Keywords: factor analysis; statistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1967
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in American Statistician 21 (1967): pp. 17-21

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