ABSTRACT
A prime use of factor analysis has been in the development of both the theoretical constructs for an area and the operational representatives for the theoretical constructs, applications that are discussed in Section 17.1. But factor analysis also has other uses. On the one hand, an investigator may desire to orthogonalize his set of independent or dependent variables before computing appropriate significance tests; orthogonalization may involve factor-analytic pro cedures (Section 17.2). On the other hand, the data may need to be explored for potential relationships from which a theory could be built, and part of the explo ration may be by factor-analytic procedures (Section 17.3). Other applications for factor analysis also exist (Section 17.4), and a concluding note is given (Section 17.5).
