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A Necessary and Sufficient Formula for Matric Factoring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Louis Guttman*
Affiliation:
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences*

Abstract

For the purpose of extracting factors from matrices, it is proved that a certain formula is both necessary and sufficient. In factor analysis, the formula may be applied either to the correlation matrix, or directly to the score matrix (assuming the communality problem is solved). As many factors as desired can be extracted in one operation. Having such a compact formulation is useful for teaching as well as computing purposes, since it includes all techniques of factor extraction as special cases.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 1957 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

On leave from the Israel Institute for Applied Social Research. This research was facilitated in part by a grant from the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation to the American Committee for Social Research in Israel, Inc.

References

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