The Application of Exploratory Factor Analysis in Applied Psychology: A Critical Review and Analysis

Abstract

Although factor analysis has been a major contributing factor in advancing psychological research, a systematic assessment of how it has been applied is lacking. For this review we examined the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, and Personnel Psychology over a ten‐year period (1975–1984) and located 152 studies that employed factor analysis. We then analyzed the choices made by the researchers concerning factor model, retention criteria, rotation, interpretation of factors and other issues relevant to factor analysis. The results indicate that choices made by researchers have generally been poor and that reporting practices have not allowed for informed review, cumulation of results, or replicability. A comparison of results by time interval (1975–1979; 1980–1984) revealed minimal differences in choices made or the quality of reporting practices. Suggestions for improving the use of factor analysis and the reporting of results are presented.

Development of a measure of workplace deviance.

“…Our guiding theory suggested two related forms of workplace deviance, and hence, we used a principal axis factoring procedure with oblique rotation to impose a two-factor solution (Ford et al, 1986;Kim & Mueller, 1978). In order to ensure that each item represented the construct underlying each factor, we used a factor weight of .40 as the minimum cutoff.…”

“…We conducted a principal factor analysis to analyze the interrelationships of the items and to suggest additional items for deletion (Ford, MacCallum, & Tail, 1986;Schwab, 1980). Our guiding theory suggested two related forms of workplace deviance, and hence, we used a principal axis factoring procedure with oblique rotation to impose a two-factor solution (Ford et al, 1986;Kim & Mueller, 1978).…”

Komplexität modellieren

“…He answered it with a vision that challenged habits of thought that had lead nowhere. This vision he kept pursuing for the rest of his life", Schönemann & Borg (1996, p. 249) Übersichtsreferate über die exploratorisch-faktorenanalytische Forschungsmethodik mit Anwendungsorientierung aus jüngerer Zeit -die meisten ohne grundlegende Kritik -stammen von Moosbrugger & Hartig (2002) und Fabrigar et al (1999), denen Artikel mit ähnlichem Ziel vorausgingen: Stevenson (1993), Tinsley & Tinsley (1987), Ford et al (1986), Glass & Taylor (1966), Cattell (1965), Peel (1953). Die am häufigsten zitierten englisch-sprachigen Lehrbücher zur exploratorischen Faktorenanalyse sind -mit z. T. Angabe der letzten und ersten Auflage: Comrey & Lee (1992, 1973, Child (1990Child ( ,1971, Gorsuch (1983Gorsuch ( , 1974, Harman (1976Harman ( , 1968, Mulaik (1972).…”

An Initial Investigation of a Modified Procedure for Parallel Analysis

“…The underlying rational for parallel analysis is that the eigenvalues of the salient factors from real data with a valid latent factor structure should be larger than the eigenvalues of the corresponding factors generated from random data (Ford, MacCallum, & Tait, 1986;Lautenschlager, 1989). Parallel analysis requires the construction of a number of correlation matrices of random variables based on the same sample size and number of variables in the real data set.…”