PCA factor score uses?

Posted by Rose, Fred on Nov 15, 2006; 3:18am
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/PCA-factor-score-uses-tp1072110.html

I'm not entirely familiar with PCA and could use some help.

I've used PCA w/varimax rotation to reduce 10 variables (answers to a racism
attitudes questionnaire) down to 2 factors.  I want to know if the
calculated factor scores for each participant can then be used as a
dependent variable in subsequent analyses, or whether I should simply
combine the variables loading on the respective factors and use those?  My
problem is in interpreting the factor scores:  Group 1 has a mean of -2.72
and Group 2 has a mean of 2.68.  These are significantly different, but I'm
not sure what the means represent (the raw data are scores ranging from 1 to
10, so there are no negatives).

Thanks for any insight.

Fred Rose