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Derivation of Theory by Means of Factor Analysis or Tom Swift and His Electric Factor Analysis Machine
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Citations
Cites
The dimensions of culture patterns by factorization of national characters.
Cattell, R. B. (1949) · Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0054760 · Cited by 105
Note on the scientific status of factors.
Overall, J. E. (1964) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0046664 · Cited by 36
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research.
Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Strahan, E. J. (1999) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.4.3.272 · Cited by 9,587
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: Understanding concepts and applications.
Thompson, B. (2004) · doi:10.1037/10694-000 · Cited by 3,469
Text as Data: The Promise and Pitfalls of Automatic Content Analysis Methods for Political Texts
Grimmer, J., & Stewart, B. M. (2013) · Political Analysis · doi:10.1093/pan/mps028 · Cited by 3,297
THE APPLICATION OF EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS IN APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: A CRITICAL REVIEW AND ANALYSIS
Ford, J. K., MacCallum, R. C., & Tait, M. (1986) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1986.tb00583.x · Cited by 1,735
A contrarian view of the five-factor approach to personality description.
Block, J. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.2.187 · Cited by 1,682
Metadata
- Authors
- Armstrong, J. S.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Armstrong, J. Scott
- Venue
- The American Statistician
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 1967-12
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 17-21
- ISSN
- 0003-1305 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-2731
- OpenAlex
- W2107760749
- Cited by
- 165
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 5
- FWCI
- 2.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- repository.upenn.edu
- Locations
- The American Statistician (publishedVersion)
- Scholarly Commons (University of Pennsylvania) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania) (submittedVersion)
- General Economics and Teaching (submittedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › Education › Diverse Academic Research Areas
- Keywords
- factor analysis, theory development, a priori analysis, system identification, scientific method, Tom Swift
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