ABSTRACT
In this chapter, some of the fundamental ideas underlying factor analysis are developed in order to provide the reader with a theoretical introduction to the subject. Many of the ideas treated are highly abstract. As a consequence the student may have difficulty relating them to previous experience. It is also assumed that the student has a working knowledge of elementary trigonometry, algebra, and statistics. For these reasons, the reader may need to review some mathematical concepts and read the chapter several times before everything falls into place. The other chapters should be less difficult to follow once the material in this chapter is mastered. Some of the later chapters consider in greater detail the topics that are introduced here.
