Re: SPSS factor scores
Posted by
SabatoPsy on
Dec 03, 2013; 8:55pm
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/SPSS-factor-scores-tp5723392p5723401.html
Thank you for all of your posts. I looked up online how the factor scores are computed in SPSS in the IBM labyrinth. I got a bunch of matrix algebra and calculus notation that I am not smart enough to follow. I did however do an experiment on my own as was also suggested. I found that there are small differences between factor scores saved via the PCA method of extraction compared to the PAF and ML extraction methods; however, there were negligible differences between the PAF and ML methods. I tested this by correlating different saved factor score variables from the exact same factor structure but with different extraction methods.
To address the question of why I am creating the factor(s) may go outside the scope of this listserve, but I will gladly take any advice/knowledge. I am running some SEM models in AMOS and am getting strange correlations between my factors. I wanted a way to test whether indeed these correlations between factors are accurate. I thought that by correlating the saved factor scores in SPSS using the ML extraction method, I should get the same correlations I got in AMOS. I am creating multiple single factors from a multiple set of 4 manifest indicators to create 5 total factors. To my knowledge, an EFA using ML and a CFA create essentially (minus negligible estimation differences) the same factor scores (when you are creating a single factor using all indicators). Therefore correlations between the SPSS factor scores I created and correlations between the latent factors I created in AMOS should be essentially equivalent. However, I am getting substantially different correlations. Does anybody know what is going on... or what I am doing wrong... or why my belief that the correlations should be the same is wrong??? I would greatly appreciate any enlightenment.
David Disabato
George Mason University