Appropriateness and limitations of factor analysis methods utilized in psychology and kinesiology: Part II

Viktorija Trninic,Janez Stalec,Igor Jelaska

doi:10.5937/fizkul1301001t

Abstract

Structural modelling techniques and application of models that extract latent variables are recent predominant techniques in the applied multivariate statistical procedures in social sciences. We believe that correlation studies can provide adequate findings if they are supported by logical analysis or causal modelling procedures. It is important to emphasize that factor analysis methods alone do not reveal the cause of covariability and that the final result of factor analytical investigation depends, in part, on the decisions and interpretations of the researcher. The question of the minimum sample size in factor analysis, ambiguousness of results obtained by FA and mathematical problems in the use of FA is particularly scrupulously discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the effect of the factor analysis of data obtained from experiments on the scientific paradigm was analyzed, with emphasis on the current problems with its application in social sciences research. Neither method, including factor analysis, is sufficient to answer all problem issues in the field of psychology and kinesiology. Therefore, it is necessary to combine complementary methods within the research which will allow a more comprehensive analysis of the researched phenomena and a greater validity of empirical results. Finally, reducing theories in psychology to a psychometric method and theories in kinesiology to a kinesiometric method is an anomaly of numerous quantitative studies within these scientific disciplines, making identification, instead of explanation of multi-causal nature of psychological and kinesiological phenomena, a primary focus of the research.

Highlights

Establishing relations between the phenomena and the cause of those phenomena, as well as defining the multicausal model of personality are the fundamental goals of personality psychology, while determining optimum anthropological patterns in a sport is one of the basic goals of sports kinesiology (Trninić, 1995).Factor analysis has been used in numerous areas
Malacko and Popović (2001) emphasize that none of the theoretical structural models tested, based on the intercorrelation of some manifest variables cannot be accepted unless confirmed by confirmative factor analysis techniques
By using theoretical arguments and empirical evidence, these authors demonstrated that the minimum sample size needed to accurately recover a population factor pattern is a function of several variables including the variables-to-factor-ratio, the average communality of the variables, and the degree to which the factors are overdetermined

Summary

Introduction

Establishing relations between the phenomena and the cause of those phenomena, as well as defining the multicausal model of personality are the fundamental goals of personality psychology, while determining optimum anthropological patterns in a sport is one of the basic goals of sports kinesiology (Trninić, 1995).Factor analysis has been used in numerous areas. A detailed study of this question would be difficult because, as emphasized by Cudeck and O’Dell (1994), these standard errors depend in a complex way on many things other than sample size, including method of rotation, number of factors, and the degree of correlation among the factors.

Results

Conclusion