Exploratory Factor Analysis with SAS

End Notes

1: Note that rotation does not alter the basic aspects of the analysis, such as the amount of variance extracted from the items. Indeed, although eigenvalues might change as factor loadings are adjusted by rotation, the overall percentage of variance accounted for will remain constant. [return]

2: Alternatively, you could imagine rotating each cluster of items toward the axis. It really works out to be functionally the same. [return]

3: Researchers also tend to misinterpret the meaning of “orthogonal” to mean that factor scores are also uncorrelated. Orthogonal factors can (and often do) produce factor scores that are correlated (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994; Thompson, 2004). For more about factor scores, see Chapter 9. [return]