ta. These data are, more often than not, multidimensional, and are characterized by multicollinearity (Weinberg, Carroll, and Cohen, 1984, pp. 475-491). In most instances, if the data are to be used effectively, it is necessary to reduce the number of explanatory variables to more manageable proportions.
Factor analysis is a general descriptor for a group of specific computational procedures (Kim, 1975, pp. 468-514). Each of the procedures included in the group, however, are intended to reduce a large number of measures to a smaller number which provides a more efficient and powerful measure of the same thing. The three general objectives of factor ana
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