Multiple Groups Analysis

Abstract

The previous chapters have dealt with methods from which orthogonal factors emerge. Clusters of related variables are then obtained subsequently by orthogonal or oblique rotations to simple structure. This chapter is concerned with a method called multiple groups analysis from which an oblique factor matrix is obtained directly and all factors are extracted simultaneously. The number of such groups (and therefore factors) is assumed at the outset either on the basis of a priori knowledge of the field of study or by a systematic procedure which the interested reader can find in more advanced texts, such as Harman [1967]. It is, however, not serious if an incorrect assumption about the number of groups is made initially.