Factor analysis using spss 2005
- 1. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS Factor Analysis Using SPSS The theory of factor analysis was described in your lecture, or read Field (2005) Chapter 15. Example Factor analysis is frequently used to develop questionnaires: after all if you want to measure an ability or trait, you need to ensure that the questions asked relate to the construct that you intend to measure. I have noticed that a lot of students become very stressed about SPSS. Therefore I wanted to design a questionnaire to measure a trait that I termed ‘SPSS anxiety’. I decided to devise a questionnaire to measure various aspects of students’ anxiety towards learning SPSS. I generated questions based on interviews with anxious and non-anxious students and came up with 23 possible questions to include. Each question was a statement followed by a five-point Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ through ‘neither agree or disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The questionnaire is printed in Field (2005, p. 639). The questionnaire was designed to predict how anxious a given individual would be about learning how to use SPSS. What’s more, I wanted to know whether anxiety about SPSS could be broken down into specific forms of anxiety. So, in other words, are there other traits that might contribute to anxiety about SPSS? With a little help from a few lecturer friends I collected 2571 completed questionnaires (at this point it should become apparent that this example is fictitious!). The data are stored in the file SAQ.sav. Questionnaires are made up of multiple items each of which elicits a response from the same person. As such, it is a repeated measures design. Given we know that repeated measures go in different columns, different questions on a questionnaire should each have their own column in SPSS. Initial Considerations Sample Size Correlation coefficients fluctuate from sample to sample, much more so in small samples than in large. Therefore, the reliability of factor analysis is also dependent on sample size. Field (2005) reviews many suggestions about the sample size necessary for factor analysis and concludes that it depends on many things. In general over 300 cases is probably adequate but communalities after extraction should probably be above 0.5 (see Field, 2005). Data Screening SPSS will nearly always find a factor solution to a set of variables. However, the solution is unlikely to have any real meaning if the variables analysed are not sensible. The first thing to do when conducting a factor analysis is to look at the inter-correlation between variables. If our test questions measure the same underlying dimension (or dimensions) then we would expect them to correlate with each other (because they are measuring the same thing). If we find any variables that do not correlate with any other variables (or very few) then you should consider excluding these variables before the factor analysis is run. The correlations between variables can be checked using the correlate procedure (see Chapter 4) to create a correlation matrix of all variables. This matrix can also be created as part of the main factor analysis. The opposite problem is when variables correlate too highly. Although mild multicollinearity is not a problem for factor analysis it is important to avoid extreme multicollinearity (i.e. variables that are very highly correlated) and singularity (variables that are perfectly correlated). As with regression, singularity causes problems in factor analysis because it becomes impossible to determine the unique contribution to a factor of the variables that are Dr. Andy Field Page 1 10/12/2005
- 2. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS highly correlated (as was the case for multiple regression). Therefore, at this early stage we look to eliminate any variables that don’t correlate with any other variables or that correlate very highly with other variables (R < .9). Multicollinearity can be detected by looking at the determinant of the R-matrix (see next section). As well as looking for interrelations, you should ensure that variables have roughly normal distributions and are measured at an interval level (which Likert scales are, perhaps wrongly, assumed to be!). The assumption of normality is important only if you wish to generalize the results of your analysis beyond the sample collected. Running the Analysis Access the main dialog box (Figure 1) by using the Analyze⇒Data Reduction⇒Factor … menu path. Simply select the variables you want to include in the analysis (remember to exclude any variables that were identified as problematic during the data screening) and transfer them to the box labelled Variables by clicking on . Figure 1: Main dialog box for factor analysis There are several options available, the first of which can be accessed by clicking on to access the dialog box in Figure 2. The Coefficients option produces the R-matrix, and the Significance levels option will produce a matrix indicating the significance value of each correlation in the R-matrix. You can also ask for the Determinant of this matrix and this option is vital for testing for multicollinearity or singularity. The determinant of the R-matrix should be greater than 0.00001; if it is less than this value then look through the correlation matrix for variables that correlate very highly (R > .8) and consider eliminating one of the variables (or more depending on the extent of the problem) before proceeding. The choice of which of the two variables to eliminate will be fairly arbitrary and finding multicollinearity in the data should raise questions about the choice of items within your questionnaire. Figure 2: Descriptives in factor analysis Dr. Andy Field Page 2 10/12/2005
- 3. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS KMO and Bartlett’s test of sphericity produces the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test (see Field, 2005, Chapters 11 & 12). The value of KMO should be greater than 0.5 if the sample is adequate. Factor Extraction on SPSS Click on to access the extraction dialog box (Figure 3). There are several ways to conduct factor analysis and the choice of method depends on many things (see Field, 2005). For our purposes we will use principal component analysis, which strictly speaking isn’t factor analysis; however, the two procedures often yield similar results (see Field, 2005, 15.3.3). The Display box has two options: to display the Unrotated factor solution and a Scree plot. The scree plot was described earlier and is a useful way of establishing how many factors should be retained in an analysis. The unrotated factor solution is useful in assessing the improvement of interpretation due to rotation. If the rotated solution is little better than the unrotated solution then it is possible that an inappropriate (or less optimal) rotation method has been used. Figure 3: Dialog box for factor extraction The Extract box provides options pertaining to the retention of factors. You have the choice of either selecting factors with eigenvalues greater than a user-specified value or retaining a fixed number of factors. For the Eigenvalues over option the default is Kaiser’s recommendation of eigenvalues over 1. It is probably best to run a primary analysis with the Eigenvalues over 1 option selected, select a scree plot, and compare the results. If looking at the scree plot and the eigenvalues over 1 lead you to retain the same number of factors then continue with the analysis and be happy. If the two criteria give different results then examine the communalities and decide for yourself which of the two criteria to believe. If you decide to use the scree plot then you may want to redo the analysis specifying the number of factors to extract. The number of factors to be extracted can be specified by selecting Number of factors and then typing the appropriate number in the space provided (e.g. 4). Rotation The interpretability of factors can be improved through rotation. Rotation maximizes the loading of each variable on one of the extracted factors whilst minimizing the loading on all other factors. Rotation works through changing the absolute values of the variables whilst keeping their differential values constant. Click on to access the dialog box in Figure 4. Varimax, quartimax and equamax are orthogonal rotations whereas direct oblimin and promax are oblique rotations (see Field 2005). The exact choice of rotation depends largely on whether or not you think that the underlying factors should be related. If you expect the factors to be independent then you should choose one of the orthogonal rotations (I recommend varimax). If, however, there are theoretical grounds for supposing that your factors might correlate then direct oblimin should be selected. For this example, choose an orthogonal rotation. The dialog box also has options for displaying the Rotated solution. The rotated solution is displayed by default and is essential for interpreting the final rotated analysis. Dr. Andy Field Page 3 10/12/2005
- 4. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS Figure 4: Factor analysis: rotation dialog box Scores The factor scores dialog box can be accessed by clicking in the main dialog box. This option allows you to save factor scores for each subject in the data editor. SPSS creates a new column for each factor extracted and then places the factor score for each subject within that column. These scores can then be used for further analysis, or simply to identify groups of subjects who score highly on particular factors. There are three methods of obtaining these scores, all of which were described in sections 15.2.3. and 15.5.3. of Field (2005). Figure 5: Factor analysis: factor scores dialog box Options Click on in the main dialog box. By default SPSS will list variables in the order in which they are entered into the data editor. Although this format is often convenient, when interpreting factors it can be useful to list variables by size. By selecting Sorted by size, SPSS will order the variables by their factor loadings. There is also the option to Suppress absolute values less than a specified value (by default 0.1). This option ensures that factor loadings within ±0.1 are not displayed in the output. This option is useful for assisting in interpretation; however, it can be helpful to increase the default value of 0.1 to either 0.4 or a value reflecting the expected value of a significant factor loading given the sample size (see Field section 15.3.6.2.). For this example set the value at 0.4. Figure 6: Factor analysis: options dialog box Dr. Andy Field Page 4 10/12/2005
- 5. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS Interpreting Output from SPSS Select the same options as I have in the screen diagrams and run a factor analysis with orthogonal rotation. To save space each variable is referred to only by its label on the data editor (e.g. Q12). On the output you obtain, you should find that the SPSS uses the value label (the question itself) in all of the output. When using the output in this chapter just remember that Q1 represents question 1, Q2 represents question 2 and Q17 represents question 17. Preliminary Analysis SPSS Output 1 shows an abridged version of the R-matrix. The top half of this table contains the Pearson correlation coefficient between all pairs of questions whereas the bottom half contains the one-tailed significance of these coefficients. We can use this correlation matrix to check the pattern of relationships. First, scan the significance values and look for any variable for which the majority of values are greater than 0.05. Then scan the correlation coefficients themselves and look for any greater than 0.9. If any are found then you should be aware that a problem could arise because of singularity in the data: check the determinant of the correlation matrix and, if necessary, eliminate one of the two variables causing the problem. The determinant is listed at the bottom of the matrix (blink and you’ll miss it). For these data its value is 5.271E−04 (which is 0.0005271) which is greater than the necessary value of 0.00001. Therefore, multicollinearity is not a problem for these data. To sum up, all questions in the SAQ correlate fairly well and none of the correlation coefficients are particularly large; therefore, there is no need to consider eliminating any questions at this stage. Correlation Matrixa Q01 Q02 Q03 Q04 Q05 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22 Q23 Correlation Q01 1.000 -.099 -.337 .436 .402 -.189 .214 .329 -.104 -.004 Q02 -.099 1.000 .318 -.112 -.119 .203 -.202 -.205 .231 .100 Q03 -.337 .318 1.000 -.380 -.310 .342 -.325 -.417 .204 .150 Q04 .436 -.112 -.380 1.000 .401 -.186 .243 .410 -.098 -.034 Q05 .402 -.119 -.310 .401 1.000 -.165 .200 .335 -.133 -.042 Q06 .217 -.074 -.227 .278 .257 -.167 .101 .272 -.165 -.069 Q07 .305 -.159 -.382 .409 .339 -.269 .221 .483 -.168 -.070 Q08 .331 -.050 -.259 .349 .269 -.159 .175 .296 -.079 -.050 Q09 -.092 .315 .300 -.125 -.096 .249 -.159 -.136 .257 .171 Q10 .214 -.084 -.193 .216 .258 -.127 .084 .193 -.131 -.062 Q11 .357 -.144 -.351 .369 .298 -.200 .255 .346 -.162 -.086 Q12 .345 -.195 -.410 .442 .347 -.267 .298 .441 -.167 -.046 Q13 .355 -.143 -.318 .344 .302 -.227 .204 .374 -.195 -.053 Q14 .338 -.165 -.371 .351 .315 -.254 .226 .399 -.170 -.048 Q15 .246 -.165 -.312 .334 .261 -.210 .206 .300 -.168 -.062 Q16 .499 -.168 -.419 .416 .395 -.267 .265 .421 -.156 -.082 Q17 .371 -.087 -.327 .383 .310 -.163 .205 .363 -.126 -.092 Q18 .347 -.164 -.375 .382 .322 -.257 .235 .430 -.160 -.080 Q19 -.189 .203 .342 -.186 -.165 1.000 -.249 -.275 .234 .122 Q20 .214 -.202 -.325 .243 .200 -.249 1.000 .468 -.100 -.035 Q21 .329 -.205 -.417 .410 .335 -.275 .468 1.000 -.129 -.068 Q22 -.104 .231 .204 -.098 -.133 .234 -.100 -.129 1.000 .230 Q23 -.004 .100 .150 -.034 -.042 .122 -.035 -.068 .230 1.000 Sig. (1-tailed) Q01 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .410 Q02 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q03 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q04 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .043 Q05 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .017 Q06 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q07 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q08 .000 .006 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .005 Q09 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q10 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .001 Q11 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q12 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .009 Q13 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .004 Q14 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .007 Q15 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .001 Q16 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q17 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q18 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q19 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q20 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .039 Q21 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q22 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 Q23 .410 .000 .000 .043 .017 .000 .039 .000 .000 a. Determinant = 5.271E-04 SPSS Output 1 SPSS Output 2 shows several very important parts of the output: the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test of sphericity. The KMO statistic varies Dr. Andy Field Page 5 10/12/2005
- 6. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS between 0 and 1. A value of 0 KMO and Bartlett's Test indicates that the sum of partial correlations is large relative to the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .930 sum of correlations, indicating diffusion in the pattern of Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 19334.492 df correlations (hence, factor analysis 253 Sig. .000 is likely to be inappropriate). A value close to 1 indicates that patterns of correlations are SPSS Output 2 relatively compact and so factor analysis should yield distinct and reliable factors. Kaiser (1974) recommends accepting values greater than 0.5 as acceptable (values below this should lead you to either collect more data or rethink which variables to include). Furthermore, values between 0.5 and 0.7 are mediocre, values between 0.7 and 0.8 are good, values between 0.8 and 0.9 are great and values above 0.9 are superb (see Hutcheson and Sofroniou, 1999, pp.224-225 for more detail). For these data the value is 0.93, which falls into the range of being superb: so, we should be confident that factor analysis is appropriate for these data. Bartlett's measure tests the null hypothesis that the original correlation matrix is an identity matrix. For factor analysis to work we need some relationships between variables and if the R- matrix were an identity matrix then all correlation coefficients would be zero. Therefore, we want this test to be significant (i.e. have a significance value less than 0.05). A significant test tells us that the R-matrix is not an identity matrix; therefore, there are some relationships between the variables we hope to include in the analysis. For these data, Bartlett's test is highly significant (p < 0.001), and therefore factor analysis is appropriate. Factor Extraction SPSS Output 3 lists the eigenvalues associated with each linear component (factor) before extraction, after extraction and after rotation. Before extraction, SPSS has identified 23 linear components within the data set (we know that there should be as many eigenvectors as there are variables and so there will be as many factors as variables). The eigenvalues associated with each factor represent the variance explained by that particular linear component and SPSS also displays the Total Variance Explained eigenvalue in terms of the Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings percentage of variance % of Cumulative % of Cumulative % of Cumulative Component Total Variance % Total Variance % Total Variance % explained (so, factor 1 1 2 7.290 1.739 31.696 7.560 31.696 39.256 7.290 1.739 31.696 7.560 31.696 39.256 3.730 3.340 16.219 14.523 16.219 30.742 explains 31.696% of total 3 1.317 5.725 44.981 1.317 5.725 44.981 2.553 11.099 41.842 4 variance). It should be clear 1.227 5.336 50.317 1.227 5.336 50.317 1.949 8.475 50.317 5 .988 4.295 54.612 that the first few factors 6 7 .895 .806 3.893 3.502 58.504 62.007 explain relatively large 8 .783 3.404 65.410 amounts of variance 9 .751 3.265 68.676 10 .717 3.117 71.793 (especially factor 1) whereas 11 12 .684 .670 2.972 2.911 74.765 77.676 subsequent factors explain 13 .612 2.661 80.337 only small amounts of 14 .578 2.512 82.849 15 .549 2.388 85.236 variance. SPSS then extracts 16 17 .523 2.275 87.511 .508 2.210 89.721 all factors with eigenvalues 18 .456 1.982 91.704 greater than 1, which leaves 19 20 .424 .408 1.843 1.773 93.546 95.319 us with four factors. The 21 22 .379 1.650 96.969 .364 1.583 98.552 eigenvalues associated with 23 .333 1.448 100.000 these factors are again Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. displayed (and the percentage of variance SPSS Output 3 explained) in the columns labelled Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings. The values in this part of the table are the same as the values before extraction, except that the values for the discarded factors are ignored (hence, the table is blank after the fourth factor). In the final part of the table (labelled Dr. Andy Field Page 6 10/12/2005
- 7. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings), the eigenvalues of the factors after rotation are displayed. Rotation has the effect of optimizing the factor structure and one consequence for these data is that the relative importance of the four factors is equalized. Before rotation, factor 1 accounted for considerably more variance than the remaining three (31.696% compared to 7.560, 5.725, and 5.336%), however after extraction it accounts for only 16.219% of variance (compared to 14.523, 11.099 and 8.475% respectively). SPSS Output 4 shows the table of communalities before and after extraction. Principal component analysis works on the initial assumption that all variance is common; therefore, before extraction the communalities are all 1. The communalities in the column labelled Extraction reflect the common variance in the data structure. So, for example, we can say that 43.5% of the variance associated with question 1 is common, or shared, variance. Another way to look at these communalities is in terms of the proportion of variance explained by the underlying factors. After extraction some of the factors are discarded and so some information is lost. The amount of variance in each variable that can be explained by the retained factors is represented by the communalities after extraction. Communalities Initial Extraction Q01 1.000 .435 a Component Matrix Q02 1.000 .414 Component Q03 1.000 .530 1 2 3 4 Q04 1.000 .469 Q18 .701 Q05 1.000 .343 Q07 .685 Q06 1.000 .654 Q16 .679 Q07 1.000 .545 Q13 .673 Q12 .669 Q08 1.000 .739 Q21 .658 Q09 1.000 .484 Q14 .656 Q10 1.000 .335 Q11 .652 -.400 Q11 1.000 .690 Q17 .643 Q12 Q04 .634 1.000 .513 Q03 -.629 Q13 1.000 .536 Q15 .593 Q14 1.000 .488 Q01 .586 Q15 1.000 .378 Q05 .556 Q16 1.000 .487 Q08 .549 .401 -.417 Q10 .437 Q17 1.000 .683 Q20 .436 -.404 Q18 1.000 .597 Q19 -.427 Q19 1.000 .343 Q09 .627 Q20 1.000 .484 Q02 .548 Q21 Q22 .465 1.000 .550 Q06 .562 .571 Q22 1.000 .464 Q23 .507 Q23 1.000 .412 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Extraction Method: Principal Component a. 4 components extracted. SPSS Output 4 This output also shows the component matrix before rotation. This matrix contains the loadings of each variable onto each factor. By default SPSS displays all loadings; however, we requested that all loadings less than 0.4 be suppressed in the output and so there are blank spaces for many of the loadings. This matrix is not particularly important for interpretation. At this stage SPSS has extracted four factors. Factor analysis is an exploratory tool and so it should be used to guide the researcher to make various decisions: you shouldn't leave the computer to make them. One important decision is the number of factors to extract. By Kaiser's criterion we should extract four factors and this is what SPSS has done. However, this criterion is accurate when there are less than 30 variables and communalities after extraction are greater than 0.7 or when the sample size exceeds 250 and the average communality is greater than 0.6. The communalities are shown in SPSS Output 4, and none exceed 0.7. The average of the communalities can be found by adding them up and dividing by the number of communalities (11.573/23 = 0.503). So, on both grounds Kaiser's rule may not be accurate. However, you should consider the huge sample that we have, because the research into Kaiser's criterion gives recommendations for much smaller samples. We can also use the scree Dr. Andy Field Page 7 10/12/2005
- 8. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS plot, which we asked SPSS to produce. The scree plot is shown below with a thunderbolt indicating the point of inflexion on the curve. This curve is difficult to interpret because the curve begins to tail off after three factors, but there is another drop after four factors before a stable plateau is reached. Therefore, we could probably justify retaining either two or four factors. Given the large sample, it is probably safe to assume Kaiser's criterion; however, you could rerun the analysis specifying that SPSS extract only two factors and compare the results. Scree Plot 8 6 4 2 Eigenvalue 0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 Component Number SPSS Output 5 If there are less than 30 variables and communalities after extraction are greater than 0.7 or if the sample size exceeds 250 and the average communality is greater than 0.6 then retain all factors with Eigen values above 1 (Kaiser’s criterion). If none of the above apply, a Scree Plot can be used when the sample size is large (around 300 or more cases). Factor Rotation The first analysis I asked you to run was using an orthogonal rotation. SPSS Output 6 shows the rotated component matrix (also called the rotated factor matrix in factor analysis) which is a matrix of the factor loadings for each variable onto each factor. This matrix contains the same information as the component matrix in SPSS Output 4 except that it is calculated after rotation. There are several things to consider about the format of this matrix. First, factor loadings less than 0.4 have not been displayed because we asked for these loadings to be suppressed. If you didn't select this option, or didn't adjust the criterion value to 0.4, then your output will differ. Second, the variables are listed in the order of size of their factor loadings because we asked for the output to be Sorted by size. If this option was not selected your output will look different. Finally, for all other parts of the output I suppressed the variable labels (for reasons of space) but for this matrix I have allowed the variable labels to be printed to aid interpretation. Compare this matrix with the unrotated solution. Before rotation, most variables loaded highly onto the first factor and the remaining factors didn't really get a look in. However, the rotation of the factor structure has clarified things considerably: there are four factors and variables load very highly onto only one factor (with the exception of one question). The suppression of loadings less than 0.4 and ordering variables by loading size also makes interpretation considerably easier (because you don't have to scan the matrix to identify substantive loadings). Dr. Andy Field Page 8 10/12/2005
- 9. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS a Rotated Component Matrix Component 1 2 3 4 I have little experience of computers .800 SPSS always crashes when I try to use it .684 I worry that I will cause irreparable damage because .647 of my incompetenece with computers All computers hate me .638 Computers have minds of their own and deliberately .579 go wrong whenever I use them Computers are useful only for playing games .550 Computers are out to get me .459 I can't sleep for thoughts of eigen vectors .677 I wake up under my duvet thinking that I am trapped .661 under a normal distribtion Standard deviations excite me -.567 People try to tell you that SPSS makes statistics .473 .523 easier to understand but it doesn't I dream that Pearson is attacking me with correlation .516 coefficients I weep openly at the mention of central tendency .514 Statiscs makes me cry .496 I don't understand statistics .429 I have never been good at mathematics .833 I slip into a coma whenever I see an equation .747 I did badly at mathematics at school .747 My friends are better at statistics than me .648 My friends are better at SPSS than I am .645 If I'm good at statistics my friends will think I'm a nerd .586 My friends will think I'm stupid for not being able to .543 cope with SPSS Everybody looks at me when I use SPSS .427 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 9 iterations. SPSS Output 6 Use orthogonal rotation when you believe your factors should theoretically independent (unrelated to each other). Use oblique rotation when you believe factors should be related to each other. Interpretation The next step is to look at the content of questions that load onto the same factor to try to identify common themes. If the mathematical factor produced by the analysis represents some real-world construct then common themes among highly loading questions can help us identify what the construct might be. The questions that load highly on factor 1 seem to all relate to using computers or SPSS. Therefore we might label this factor fear of computers. The questions that load highly on factor 2 all seem to relate to different aspects of statistics; therefore, we might label this factor fear of statistics. The three questions that load highly on factor 3 all seem to relate to mathematics; therefore, we might label this factor fear of mathematics. Finally, the questions that load highly on factor 4 all contain some component of social evaluation from friends; therefore, we might label this factor peer evaluation. This analysis seems to reveal that the initial questionnaire, in reality, is composed of four sub- scales: fear of computers, fear of statistics, fear of maths, and fear of negative peer evaluation. There are two possibilities here. The first is that the SAQ failed to measure what it set out to (namely SPSS anxiety) but does measure some related constructs. The second is that these four constructs are sub-components of SPSS anxiety; however, the factor analysis does not indicate which of these possibilities is true. Guided Example The University of Sussex is constantly seeking to employ the best people possible as lecturers (no, really, it is). Anyway, they wanted to revise a questionnaire based on Bland’s theory of Dr. Andy Field Page 9 10/12/2005 SPSS Output 6
- 10. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS research methods lecturers. This theory predicts that good research methods lecturers should have four characteristics: (1) a profound love of statistics; (2) an enthusiasm for experimental design; (3) a love of teaching; and (4) a complete absence of normal interpersonal skills. These characteristics should be related (i.e. correlated). The ‘Teaching Of Statistics for Scientific Experiments’ (TOSSE) already existed, but the university revised this questionnaire and it became the ‘Teaching Of Statistics for Scientific Experiments — Revised’ (TOSSE—R). The gave this questionnaire to 239 research methods lecturers around the world to see if it supported Bland’s theory. The questionnaire is below. SD = Strongly Disagree, D = Disagree, N = Neither, A = Agree, SA = Strongly Agree SD D N A SA I once woke up in the middle of a vegetable patch hugging a turnip that I'd mistakenly dug 1 A A A A A up thinking it was Roy's largest root 2 If I had a big gun I'd shoot all the students I have to teach A A A A A 3 I memorize probability values for the F-distribution A A A A A 4 I worship at the shrine of Pearson A A A A A 5 I still live with my mother and have little personal hygiene A A A A A Teaching others makes me want to swallow a large bottle of bleach because the pain of my 6 A A A A A burning oesophagus would be light relief in comparison 7 Helping others to understand Sums of Squares is a great feeling A A A A A 8 I like control conditions A A A A A 9 I calculate 3 ANOVAs in my head before getting out of bed every morning A A A A A 10 I could spend all day explaining statistics to people A A A A A 11 I like it when people tell me I've helped them to understand factor rotation A A A A A 12 People fall asleep as soon as I open my mouth to speak A A A A A 13 Designing experiments is fun A A A A A 14 I'd rather think about appropriate dependent variables than go to the pub A A A A A 15 I soil my pants with excitement at the mere mention of Factor Analysis A A A A A 16 Thinking about whether to use repeated or independent measures thrills me A A A A A I enjoy sitting in the park contemplating whether to use participant observation in my next 17 A A A A A experiment 18 Standing in front of 300 people in no way makes me lose control of my bowels A A A A A 19 I like to help students A A A A A 20 Passing on knowledge is the greatest gift you can bestow an individual A A A A A Dr. Andy Field Page 10 10/12/2005
- 11. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS 21 Thinking about Bonferroni corrections gives me a tingly feeling in my groin A A A A A 22 I quiver with excitement when thinking about designing my next experiment A A A A A 23 I often spend my spare time talking to the pigeons ... and even they die of boredom A A A A A I tried to build myself a time machine so that I could go back to the 1930s and follow Fisher 24 A A A A A around on my hands and knees licking the floor on which he'd just trodden 25 I love teaching A A A A A 26 I spend lots of time helping students A A A A A 27 I love teaching because students have to pretend to like me or they'll get bad marks A A A A A 28 My cat is my only friend A A A A A The Teaching of Statistics for Scientific Experiments — Revised (TOSSE-R) Load the data in the file TOSSE-R.sav Conduct a factor analysis (with appropriate rotation) to see the factor structure of the data. Would you exclude any items on the questionnaire on the basis of multicollinearity or singularity? (Quote Relevant statistics). Your Answer: Dr. Andy Field Page 11 10/12/2005
- 12. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS Is the sample size adequate? Explain your answer quoting any relevant statistics. Your Answer: How many factors should be retained? Explain your answer quoting any relevant statistics. Your Answer: Dr. Andy Field Page 12 10/12/2005
- 13. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS What method of rotation have you used and why? Your Answer: Which items load onto which factors? Do these factors make psychological sense (i.e. can you name them based on the items that load onto them?) Your Answer: Dr. Andy Field Page 13 10/12/2005
- 14. C8057 (Research Methods II): Factor Analysis on SPSS Unguided Example Re-run the SAQ analysis using oblique rotation (Use Field, 2005 to help you). Compare the results to the current analysis. Also, look over Field (2005) and find out about Factor Scores and how to interpret them. Multiple Choice Questions Go to http://www.sagepub.co.uk/field/multiplechoice.html and test yourself on the multiple choice questions for Chapter 15. If you get any wrong, re- read this handout (or Field, 2005, Chapter 15) and do them again until you get them all correct. This handout is an abridged version of Chapter 15 of Field (2005) and so is copyright protected. Field, A. P. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS (2nd edition). London: Sage. Dr. Andy Field Page 14 10/12/2005