1 FACTOR ANALYSIS (DR SEE KIN HAI)

1. Factor analysis is a data reduction technique use to reduce a large number of variables to a smaller number of factors which account for many of the original variables. 2. Used to see the pattern of responses of people in closed-ended questionnaires with items measuring similar things identified. An exploratory technique where you can summaries the structure of a set of variables. 3. Seven methods of factor extraction: 1. Principal Components (PC), 2. Unweighted Least Square, 3. Generalised Least Squares, 4. Maximum Likelihood, 5. Principal-Axis Factoring (PAF), 6. Alpha Factorring, 7. Image Factoring 4 steps in factor analysis procedure 1. Computation of Correlation Matrix - to see the appropriateness of factor analytic model 2. Factor Extraction to determine the number of factors needed to represent the data 3. Rotation to make the factor structure more interpretable can be (a). Orthogonal (factors uncorrelated with one another); (b). Oblique (factors are correlated)

4. Interpret the results. There are 5 types of Rotations in SPSS 20

2 (a). Varimax rotation is an orthogonal rotation of the factor axes to maximize the variance of the squared loadings of a factor (column) on all the variables (rows) in a factor matrix, which has the effect of differentiating the original variables by extracted factor. Each factor will tend to have either large or small loadings of any particular variable. A varimax solution yields results which make it as easy as possible to identify each variable with a single factor. This is the most common rotation option. (b). Quartimax rotation is an orthogonal alternative which minimizes the number of factors needed to explain each variable. This type of rotation often generates a general factor on which most variables are loaded to a high or medium degree. Such a factor structure is usually not helpful to the research purpose. (c). Equimax rotation is a compromise between Varimax and Quartimax criteria (d). Direct Oblimin rotation Tends to produce varimax-looking factors, but which are oblique (e). Promax rotation is an alternative non-orthogonal (oblique) rotation method which is computationally faster than the direct oblimin method and therefore is sometimes used for very large datasets Conditions needed to use Factor Analysis 1. Sample size min 5 persons per variable, 100 subjects acceptable, 200+ preferable 2. Correlation matrix correlation value > 0.3, Bartletts test of sphericity is large and significant with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure > 0.6

How to run a Factor Analysis Four Steps are needed 1. Create a correlation matrix 2. Extract factors = computer select a combination of indep vars whose shares correlations explain the greatest amount of total variance that contribute to dep var (Factor 1), then extract a second factor (Factor 2) etc. Factor = 1; eigenvalue = 5.13312 (show the proportion of variance accounted for by each factor; therefore 1st eigenvalue largest as it explains with greatest amount of total variance) 3. Select and Rotate factors = Decide which factors to retain for analysis having face validity or theoretical validity. Eigenvalue > 1.0 selected use a Scree plot to select. Now Rotate the factors for interpretation with factor loadings from -1.0 to 1.0 showing the strength of the ind var with the Factor (correlation). > 0.6 = high loading as correlation.

The unrotated and rotated structure shown above for simple representation. Varimax rotations (orthogonal) axes at 90o to each other. Other rotations Oblimin/ Promax are difficult to interprete at this stage. 4. Interpret results= Factors with high loading (> 0.5) have good face validity and appear to measure some underlying construct. This will lead to Construct Validity. Example. The Questionnaire below which has been adapted from Campagnone (undated) consists of 14 items with 4-Likert scale (SD=1, D=2, A=3, SA=4). You are to reduce 14 variables to a smaller number of factors which account for many of the original variables. You are also required to determine the reliability of this questionnaire.

5 1. Enter the data collected from the questionnaire above. Look at the [Variable View] then [Data View].

SD=1, D=2, A=3, SA=4 Missing value =999

6 2. To determine the cronbachs alpha reliability of this instrument. Select [Analyze] then [Scale] then [Reliability Analysis] to open the dialogue box. 3. Move [Item 1] to [Item14] into the [Items ] box.

4. Select [Statistics..] then [Scale if item deleted], {continue] and [OK].

The Reliability coefficient = 0.36 which is unacceptable even if any items are deleted you still get a very low reliability coefficient. The instrument that you are using is unreliable and has no internal consistency. (However, this is only an example for you to work on).

The alpha reliability of the 14 items is 0.359 = 0.36 which is very low. According to George and Mallery (2003) 0.9 (v.good) 0.8 (good) 0.7 (acceptable) 0.6 (moderate) 0.5 (poor) 0.5 (unacceptable)

Even you delete any of the 14 items, the Cronbachs Alpha is still very low and unacceptable. For example, you delete Item 13, = 0.457 the value is still very low and unacceptable.

5. Now you try to determine the [Split-half] reliability. [Analyze] [Scale] [ Reliability Analysis] to open the dialogue box and move [Item1] to [Item14] into the [Items] box and select [Split-half] in the [Model] box. Now select [Statistics] to open the sub-dialogue box then [Continue] and [OK].

The Split-half reliability coefficient = 0.12 which is below 0.6 (moderate reliability) and is still very low and not reliable. Thus the instrument you are using is not reliable. However, this is only an example, you will proceed from here.

To run Principal components analysis with orthogonal rotation 1. [Analyze] [Dimension Reduction] [Factor] to open the dialogue box. 2. Move [Item1] to [Item14] into [Variable] box and select [Descriptives] to open the sub-dialogue box.

Select [Coefficients] then [Continue] [Extraction] [Scree plot] [Continue]

Click [Continue] then select [Rotation] [Varimax] [Continue] (however, you can experiment with other types of rotations)

Select [Continue] [Options] and select [Sorted by size] [Continue] and [OK]

Here only Item 2 is slightly correlated with Item 8 and Item 4 with Item 5 (This is only an example)

Correlation Matrix Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6 Item 7 Item 8 Item 9 Item 10 Item 11 Item 12 Item 13 Correlation Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6 1.000 -.150 .107 -.072 .313 -.048 -.150 1.000 .121 .143 -.292 -.089 .107 .121 1.000 -.008 .134 .387 -.072 .143 -.008 1.000 .477 .060 .313 -.292 .134 .477 1.000 .313 -.048 -.089 .387 .060 .313 1.000 .226 -.254 .378 .029 .330 .226 -.251 .521 .132 .371 .169 .103 -.052 -.187 -.232 -.275 .000 .012 .019 .131 .024 -.391 -.330 -.050 -.437 .350 -.067 .310 -.153 -.116 -.229 -.075 .353 .163 .000 .275 -.063 .151 .067 -.154 -.092 -.217 Item 14 -.334 .376 .226 .268 .000 .381

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Item 7 Item 8 Item 9 Item 10 Item 11 Item 12 Item 13 Item 14 .226 -.251 -.052 .019 -.437 -.229 -.063 -.334 -.254 .521 -.187 .131 .350 -.075 .151 .376 .378 .132 -.232 .024 -.067 .353 .067 .226 .029 .371 -.275 -.391 .310 .163 -.154 .268 .330 .169 .000 -.330 -.153 .000 -.092 .000 .226 .103 .012 -.050 -.116 .275 -.217 .381 1.000 -.264 .046 .347 .046 .024 -.370 -.029 -.264 1.000 .113 -.264 .321 -.050 .260 .391 .046 .113 1.000 -.156 .060 -.191 -.097 .382 .347 -.264 -.156 1.000 .046 -.374 -.006 -.352 .046 .321 .060 .046 1.000 -.067 .128 .382 .024 -.050 -.191 -.374 -.067 1.000 -.229 .358 -.370 .260 -.097 -.006 .128 -.229 1.000 .098 -.029 .391 .382 -.352 .382 .358 .098 1.000

Here [Correlation matrix] is difficult to see in its entirety.

Factor 1 account for 16 % of the total variance

This table shows 6 principal components factors were initially extracted. The computer ignores an Eigenvalue < 1.00 because these factors consist of uninterpretable error variation. To confirm the 6 factors that have been extracted and can be explained, look at the Scree plot below.
These 6 factors (components) will be analyzed further by the computer as their eigenvalues (Total) > 1.00

Varimax rotation seeks to maximize the variances of the squared normalized factor loadings across variables for each factor. This is equivalent to maximizing the variances in the columns of the matrix of the squared normalized factor loadings.

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The scree plot shows only 6 factors that have been extracted and explained by the computer with Eigenvalue > 1.00. Kaiser criterion: The Kaiser rule is to drop all components with eigenvalues under 1.0 this being the eigenvalue equals to the information accounted for by an average single item. The Kaiser criterion is the default in SPSS 20.

Now the 6 factors are then orthogonally (Varimax) rotated and the loadings of the 14 items on these 6 factors are shown in the [Rotated Component Matrix]. The factor loadings are the correlation coefficients between the variables and factors. Factor loadings are the basis for imputing a label to different factors. Analogous to Pearson's r, the squared factor loading is the percentage of variance in the variable, explained by a factor. (0.6 - 0.7 = high loading: that independent variables are identified and represented by this specific factor; 0.5 = moderate, < 0.4 = low) Eigenvalues: The eigenvalue for a given factor reflects the variance in all the variables, which is accounted for by that factor. A factor's eigenvalue may be computed as the sum of its squared factor loadings for all the variables. The ratio of eigenvalues is the ratio of explanatory importance of the factors with respect to the variables. If a factor has a low eigenvalue, then it is contributing little to the explanation of variances in the variables and may be ignored.

12 Table 1. Orthogonal factor loading matrix for the 14 items

The variables (Items) are sorted according to their loadings on the first factor to lowest loadings. This helps interpretation of the factor as high loading items help you to decide what the factor is. Now the 14 variables (items) of Attitude Questionnaire have been reduced to 6 Factors: (Refer to the questionnaire on page 4) Factor 1: Factor 2: Factor 3: Factor 4: Factor 5: Factor 6: Items 11, 1, 2, 14 (Anxiety in using calculator) accounted for 16.0% of the variance. Items 3, 6 (Usefulness of calculator) accounted for 14.3% of the variance. Items 5, 4 (Help to understand problem) accounted for 13.5% of the variance. Items 13, 8 (Time consuming) accounted for 12.8% of the variance. Items 10, 12, 7 (Convenient of using calculator) accounted for 12.2% of the variance. Item 9 (Not useful) accounted for 10.3% of the variance.

Reporting the output 1. A principal components factor analysis was conducted on the correlations of the 14 variables. 2. 6 factors were initially extracted with eigenvalues equal or greater than 1.00. Orthogonal rotation (Varimax) of the factors yielded the factor structure given in Table 1. The first factor accounted for 16.0% of the variance, the second factor 14.3%, third factor 13.5%, fourth factor 12.8%, fifth

13 factor 12.2% and sixth factor 10.3%. The factors were interpreted as above. (e.g. Factor 1 is Anxiety in using calculator). COURSEWORK The Questionnaire below which has been adapted from Noraini (2006) consists of 24 items with 4-Likert scale (SD=1, D=2, A=3, SA=4). You are to reduce the 24 variables to a smaller number of factors which account for the 24 of the original variables. You are also required to determine the reliability of this questionnaire. (Try using Varimax Rotation, Quartimax, Equimax, Promax and Direct Oblimin rotations and see which the better model is)

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15 Data were collected from the 22 students and are presented in [Variable View] and [Data View] below. (SD=1, D=, A=3, SA=4) (=Mal, 2=Female)