Exploratory factor analysis: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:38, 6 October 2020

Revision as of 18:20, 4 November 2020

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===Oblique rotation===

Oblique rotations permit correlations among factors. An advantage of oblique rotation is that it produces solutions with better simple structure when factors are expected to correlate, and it produces estimates of correlations among factors.<ref name=Fabrigar/>. These rotations may produce solutions similar to orthogonal rotation if the factors do not correlate with each other.

Several oblique rotation procedures are commonly used.

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===Unrotated solution===

Common factor analysis software is capable of producing an unrotated solution. This refers to the result of a [[Exploratory_factor_analysis#Principal_axis_factoring_(PAF)|principal axis factoring]] with no further rotation. The so-called unrotated solution is in fact an orthogonal rotation that maximizes the variance of the first factors. The unrotated solution tends to give a general factor with loadings for most of the variables. This may be useful if many variables are correlated with each other, as revealed by one or a few dominating [[eigenvalue|eigenvalues]] on a [[scree plot]].

The usefulness of an unrotated solution was emphasized by a [[meta analysis]] of studies of cultural differences. This revealed that many published studies of cultural differences have given similar factor analysis results, but rotated differently. Factor rotation has obscured the similarity between the results of different studies and the existence of a strong general factor, while the unrotated solutions were much more similar.<ref name="Fog2020">{{cite journal|last=Fog|first=A. |title=A Test of the Reproducibility of the Clustering of Cultural Variables |journal=Cross-Cultural Research |year=2020 |doi=10.1177/1069397120956948}}</ref>.

==Factor interpretation==