Making Sense of Factor Analysis PDF Download

Author: Marjorie A. Pett
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 0761919503
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Many health care practitioners and researchers are aware of the need to employ factor analysis in order to develop more sensitive instruments for data collection. Unfortunately, factor analysis is not a unidimensional approach that is easily understood by even the most experienced of researchers. Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research presents a straightforward explanation of the complex statistical procedures involved in factor analysis. Authors Marjorie A. Pett, Nancy M. Lackey, and John J. Sullivan provide a step-by-step approach to analyzing data using statistical computer packages like SPSS and SAS. Emphasizing the interrelationship between factor analysis and test construction, the authors examine numerous practical and theoretical decisions that must be made to efficiently run and accurately interpret the outcomes of these sophisticated computer programs. This accessible volume will help both novice and experienced health care professionals to Increase their knowledge of the use of factor analysis in health care research Understand journal articles that report the use of factor analysis in test construction and instrument development Create new data collection instruments Examine the reliability and structure of existing health care instruments Interpret and report computer-generated output from a factor analysis run Making Sense of Factor Analysis: The Use of Factor Analysis for Instrument Development in Health Care Research offers a practical method for developing tests, validating instruments, and reporting outcomes through the use of factor analysis. To facilitate learning, the authors provide concrete testing examples, three appendices of additional information, and a glossary of key terms. Ideal for graduate level nursing students, this book is also an invaluable resource for health care researchers.

Author: John Spicer
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9781412904018
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
A short introduction to the subject, this text is aimed at students & practitioners in the behavioural & social sciences. It offers a conceptual overview of the foundations of MDA & of a range of specific techniques including multiple regression, logistic regression & log-linear analysis.

Author: Stanley A Mulaik
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420099817
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
Providing a practical, thorough understanding of how factor analysis works, Foundations of Factor Analysis, Second Edition discusses the assumptions underlying the equations and procedures of this method. It also explains the options in commercial computer programs for performing factor analysis and structural equation modeling. This long-awaited e

Author: Roderick P. McDonald
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317768760
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Factor Analysis is a genetic term for a somewhat vaguely delimited set of techniques for data processing, mainly applicable to the social and biological sciences. These techniques have been developed for the analysis of mutual relationships among a number of measurements made on a number of measurable entities. In the broad sense, factor analysis comprises a number of statistical models which yield testable hypotheses -- hypotheses that may confirm or disconfirm in terms of the usual statistical procedures for making tests of significance. It also comprises a number of simplifying procedures for the approximate description of data, which do not in any sense constitute disconfirmable hypotheses, except in the loose sense that they supply approximations to the data. In literature, the two types of analysis have often been confused. This book clarifies the concepts of factor analysis for students or professionals in the social sciences who wish to know the technique, rather than the mathematics, of factor theory. Mathematical concepts are described to have an intuitive meaning for the non-mathematical reader. An account of the elements of matrix algebra, in the appendix, and the (mathematical) notes following each chapter will help the reader who wishes to receive a more advanced treatment of the subject. Factor Analysis and Related Methods should prove a useful text for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in economics, the behavioral sciences, and education. Researchers and practitioners in those fields will also find this book a handy reference.

Author: Diana Mindrila
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781536124866
Category : Exploratory factor analysis
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In education, researchers often work with complex data sets that include a multitude of variables. One question that often arises in such contexts is whether the structure of associations that underlies the data is accounted for by a latent construct. Exploratory factor analysis is a multivariate correlational procedure that helps researchers overcome such challenges. It helps reduce large data sets into main components or identify distinct constructs that account for the pattern of correlations among observed variables. These unobservable constructs are referred to as common factors, latent variables, or internal attributes, and they exert linear influences on more than one observed variable. Although exploratory factor analysis is widely used, many applied educational researchers and practitioners are not yet familiar with this procedure and are intimidated by the technical terminology. This book provides a conceptual description of this method and includes a collection of applied research studies that illustrates the application of exploratory factor analysis in school improvement research. The first chapter provides a theoretical overview of exploratory factor analysis. It explains the purposes for which this procedure can be used, the related terminology, the distinction between key concepts, the steps that must be taken, and the criteria for making the decisions. This information can serve as a starting point for researchers who need a brief, conceptual introduction to this topic. The following chapters present a series of research studies in which exploratory factor analysis was employed either by itself or in conjunction with other statistical procedures. The studies presented in this book address a variety of research problems in the field of school improvement. They specify how the factor analytic procedure was applied, and explain the theoretical contributions and the practical applications of the factor analytic results. In most studies, results from factor analysis were used for subsequent statistical procedures, thus helping researchers address more complex research questions and enriching the results.

Author: Larry Hatcher
Publisher: SAS Institute
ISBN: 1612903878
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Annotation Structural equation modeling (SEM) has become one of the most important statistical procedures in the social and behavioral sciences. This easy-to-understand guide makes SEM accessible to all userseven those whose training in statistics is limited or who have never used SAS. It gently guides users through the basics of using SAS and shows how to perform some of the most sophisticated data-analysis procedures used by researchers: exploratory factor analysis, path analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. It shows how to perform analyses with user-friendly PROC CALIS, and offers solutions for problems often encountered in real-world research. This second edition contains new material on sample-size estimation for path analysis and structural equation modeling. In a single user-friendly volume, students and researchers will find all the information they need in order to master SAS basics before moving on to factor analysis, path analysis, and other advanced statistical procedures.

Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309298768
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
More than 2 decades have passed since the 1990-1991 conflict in the Persian Gulf. During the intervening years, many Gulf War veterans have experienced various unexplained symptoms that many associate with service in the gulf region, but no specific exposure has been definitively associated with symptoms. Numerous researchers have described the pattern of signs and symptoms found in deployed Gulf War veterans and noted that they report unexplained symptoms at higher rates than nondeployed veterans or veterans deployed elsewhere during the same period. Gulf War veterans have consistently shown a higher level of morbidity than the nondeployed, in some cases with severe and debilitating consequences. However, efforts to define a unique illness or syndrome in Gulf War veterans have failed, as have attempts to develop a uniformly accepted case definition. Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Gulf War Veterans is a comprehensive review of the available scientific and medical literature regarding symptoms for chronic multisymptom illness (CMI) among the 1991 Gulf War Veterans. This report evaluates and summarizes the literature in an effort to identify appropriate terminology to use in referring to CMI in Gulf War Veterans. While the report does not recommend one specific case definition over another, Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Gulf War Veterans does recommend the consideration of two case definitions on the basis of their concordance with the evidence and their ability to identify specific symptoms commonly reported by Gulf War veterans. This report recommends that the Department of Veterans Affairs use the term Gulf War illness rather than CMI. The report recommends that that the Department of Veterans Affairs, to the extent possible, systematically assess existing data to identify additional features of Gulf War illness, such as onset, duration, severity, frequency of symptoms, and exclusionary criteria to produce a more robust case definition.

Author: Keming Yang
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1446205592
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Making Sense of Statistical Methods in Social Research is a critical introduction to the use of statistical methods in social research. It provides a unique approach to statistics that concentrates on helping social researchers think about the conceptual basis for the statistical methods they′re using. Whereas other statistical methods books instruct students in how to get through the statistics-based elements of their chosen course with as little mathematical knowledge as possible, this book aims to improve students′ statistical literacy, with the ultimate goal of turning them into competent researchers. Making Sense of Statistical Methods in Social Research contains careful discussion of the conceptual foundation of statistical methods, specifying what questions they can, or cannot, answer. The logic of each statistical method or procedure is explained, drawing on the historical development of the method, existing publications that apply the method, and methodological discussions. Statistical techniques and procedures are presented not for the purpose of showing how to produce statistics with certain software packages, but as a way of illuminating the underlying logic behind the symbols. The limited statistical knowledge that students gain from straight forward ′how-to′ books makes it very hard for students to move beyond introductory statistics courses to postgraduate study and research. This book should help to bridge this gap.

Author: Leandre R. Fabrigar
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199734178
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This book provides a non-mathematical introduction to the theory and application of Exploratory Factor Analysis. Among the issues discussed are the use of confirmatory versus exploratory factor analysis, the use of principal components analysis versus common factor analysis, and procedures for determining the appropriate number of factors.

Author: Malcolm Warner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317987578
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This edited work attempts to ‘make sense’ of recent developments in the field of Human Resource Management in the People’s Republic of China. It attempts to see how the paradoxes and contradictions engendered by contemporary Chinese society are being resolved in the enterprises and workplaces of the Middle Kingdom. The book starts with an overview of the literature, then follows with a selection of micro-oriented, concerned with topics like recruitment and retention, then macro-oriented empirical studies, a number of the latter dealing with strategic as well as performance issues, with last, those comparing sets of societal cultural values. It attempts a synthesis of what has emerged from recent research on the ‘harmonious society’. These contributions from authors based in universities in eight countries, in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, United Kingdom and USA, cover a wide range of research on HRM, from the micro- to the macro-. Six of them teach and/or research at campuses on the Mainland. Their empirical, field-based research covers the last half-decade and presents a robust picture of both what practitioners have adopted and how researchers have tried to ‘make sense’ of what they have investigated. This book was based on a special issue of Intl Journal of Human Resource Management.