Use of exploratory factor analysis in maritime research sciencedirect. Gorsuch, modern factor analysis third edition revised. Pdf factor analysis is a powerful and oftenused technique in construction. Kline, 1994, but recent simulations show that the sample size required to recover a stable factor structure is a joint function of number of factors, number of items per factor with the required sample size. On the application side, considerable attention is given to the extraction problem, the rotation problem, and. Author comrey, andrew laurence subjects factor analysis mathematics applied mathematical statistics. Factor analysis is a statistical technique, the aim of which is to simplify a complex data set by representing the set of variables in terms of a smaller number of underlying hypothetical or unobservable variables, known as factors or latent variables.
First course in factor analysis ebok andrew l comrey. The discussions of rotational criteria, planning, design issues, factor interpretation essential reading by anyone using factor analysis and the writing up of results are excellent. This version in arabic language presents acceptable psychometric proprieties to evaluate the mental skills of the athletes in tunisia and in other arabic. The efa output will show all the items loading on all the factors. Given the proliferation of factor analysis applications in the literature, the present article examines the use of factor analysis in current published research across four psychological journals. Comrey and lee 1992 offered a rough rating scale for ad equate sample sizes in factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis, dichotomous data, sample size. Access to society journal content varies across our titles. Comrey a l lee h b 1992 a first course in factor analysis.
Fifteen factors were extracted and the largest 12 were rotated by the normal varimax method kaiser, 1958. Comrey al and lee hb 1992 a first course in factor analysis 2nd edition. The dimensionality of this matrix can be reduced by looking for variables that correlate highly with a group of other variables, but correlate. A primer on factor analysis with comments on patterns of practice and.
A monte carlo simulation was conducted, varying the level of communalities, number of factors, variabletofactor ratio and dichotomization threshold. Exploratory factor analysis with categorical factor indicators 4. The data used is a secondary data, collected from federal university wukari staff school and its on the terminal examination scores of the pupils in seven selected subjects over one selected academic session 20152016. The factor analysis literature includes a range of recommendations regarding the minimum sample size necessary to obtain factor solutions that are adequately stable and that correspond closely to. The basic statistic used in factor analysis is the. Exploratory factor analysis with continuous, censored, categorical, and count factor indicators 4. Use of exploratory factor analysis in published research.
First course in factor analysis by comrey, andrew l. Exploratory factor analysis with continuous factor indicators 4. Lee the goal of this book is to foster a basic understanding of factor analytic techniques so that readers can use them in their own research and critically evaluate their use by other researchers. Factor analysis in a nutshell the starting point of factor analysis is a correlation matrix, in which the intercorrelations between the studied variables are presented. An exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis of the. This result, factor analysis 2nd edition by andrew l. Focusing on exploratory factor analysis an gie yong and sean pearce university of ottawa the following paper discusses exploratory factor analysis and gives an overview of the statistical technique and how it is used in various research designs and applications. Factor analysis exploratory factor confirmatory principal common factor unweighted least square. For instance, armstrong 1967, in an article entitled derivation of theory by means of factor analysis or tom swift and his electric factor analysis machine, argued that factor analysis had.
Mean these are the means of the variables used in the factor analysis. Identification of the underlying factor structure of the. If you have access to a journal via a society or association membership, please browse to your society journal, select an article to view, and follow the instructions in this box. Survey research and design in psychologylecturesexploratory.
Common errors, and some comment on improved practice. Comrey and lee 1992 provided the following guidance in. On the application side, considerable attention is given to the extraction problem, the rotation problem, and the interpretation of factor analytic results. Educational and psychological measurement, 66, 393416. This 61x61 matrix was factor analyzed by the minimum residual method comrey, 1962. Basic concepts factor analysis model factor analysis.
Factor analysis uses correlations among many items to search for common clusters. Use of exploratory factor analysis in maritime research. Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in. Minimum sample sizes are recommended for conducting exploratory factor analysis on dichotomous data. Factor analysis is often used in research to explain a large number of. Exploratory factor analysis factor analysis correlation. Guadagnoli e and velicer w 1988 relation of sample size to the stability of component patterns. Summary the goal of this book is to foster a basic understanding of factor analytic techniques so that readers can use them in their own research and critically evaluate their use by other researchers. Also, confirmatory factor analysis provides a good adjustment index and adequate factorial structure.
Download pdf show page numbers the comrey personality scales cps, developed by factor analysis, is a personality inventory of 180 multiplechoice items. Interpretation and application of factor analytic results. Recommended sample size for conducting exploratory factor. Comrey and lee 1992 offered a rough rating scale for adequate sample sizes in factor analysis. Hair jf, tatham rl, anderson re and black w 1998 multivariate data analysis. The description and insights into how factor analysis was used in the development of the comrey personality scales i found extremely useful and informative. Exploratory factor analysis with small sample sizes. A first course in factor analysis 2nd edition andrew l. Notwithstanding ease of analysis due to computers, the appropriate use of factor analysis requires a series of thoughtful researcher judgments.
This book has been written for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and research workers who need to develop a knowledge of factor analysis, either for the purpose of understanding the published research of others or to aid them in their own research. Focusing on exploratory factor analysis quantitative methods for. Exploratory factor analysis university of groningen. Nov 12, 20 a first course in factor analysis andrew l.
Factor analysis uses matrix algebra when computing its calculations. Exploratory factor analysis in sexuality research henson, r. Like other tests of significance, you are looking for a value of. Lee a first course in factor analysis 2nd ed by andrew l. A first course in factor analysis andrew laurence comrey. For the current study, increasing sample sizes beyond 1,000 served to enhance power and provided the opportunity to obtain a wide. A monte carlo simulation was conducted, varying the level of communalities, number of factors, variableto factor ratio and dichotomization threshold. Factor analysis of the neopi inventory and the comrey.
They urged researchers to obtain samples of 500 or more observations whenever possible in factor analytic studies. If the factor analysis is being conducted on the correlations as opposed to the covariances, it is not much of a concern that the variables have very different means andor standard deviations which is often the case when variables are measured on different scales. Comrey a l lee h b 1992 a first course in factor analysis hillsdale nj erlbaum from com 10 at university of toronto. Application of factor analysis on academic performance of pupils. Exploratory factor analysis is a tool to help a researcher throw a hoop around clusters of related items, to distinguish between clusters, and to identify and eliminate irrelevant or indistinct overlapping items.
It is an assumption made for mathematical convenience. Guidelines on the required sample size for exploratory factor analysis have been inconsistent comrey and lee, 1992. The authors begin by discussing how the appropriate use of efa in scale revision is influenced by both the hierarchical nature of psychological constructs and the motivations underlying the revision. Nov 12, 20 the theory is presented through the mathematical basis of the most common factor analytic models and several methods used in factor analysis. Variation in the analyzed performance and the factors causing the variations were studied using factor analysis. A first course in factor analysis 2nd edition by andrew l. In summary, 100 sample correlation matrices were generated under each of. Exploratory factor mixture analysis with continuous latent class indicators. Other editions view all a first course in factor analysis andrew l. Exploratory factor analysis efa is generally regarded as a technique for large sample sizes n, with n 50 as a reasonable absolute. We normally say that the ratio of respondents to variables should be at least 10. Kop first course in factor analysis av andrew l comrey, howard b lee pa.
A number of textbooks1,810 cite the work of comrey and lee in their guide to sample sizes. In summary, it has been revealed that the prevailing student. Comrey and lee 1992 provided the following scale of sample size. In fact, tabachnick and fidell 1996 agree that it is comforting to have at least 300 cases for factor analysis p. This book has been written for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and research workers who need to develop a knowledge of factor analysis, either for the purpose of understanding the published research of. Hair et al9 suggested that sample sizes should be 100 or greater.
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