ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the basic concepts of factor analysis and details how to carry out an exploratory factor analysis procedure in SPSS. One is the distinction between exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis. The scree test plot is simply a graphical version of the table of eigenvalues provided by SPSS but it makes a visually dramatic statement about the strengths of each factor. The authors will go through SPSS procedures for the first and second stages in EFA, where the authors first check the data are suitable for analysis and then decide on the appropriate number of factors. At each stage they will discuss the essential points to be considered and decisions to be made. Bartlett's test of sphericity is significant, so they have also passed these two criteria with our data; hence, they proceed to a decision on how many factors to extract in our final analysis.
