Abstract
Many software programs can be used to train psychology graduate students and researchers to perform various types of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. However, the mechanics of the model fitting process are generally opaque to the student or researcher when using these programs. We propose that spreadsheets can be a very effective tool for enabling psychology students to obtain a better understanding of what is “under the hood” of the factor analysis methods they are implementing with popular software packages such as SPSS, AMOS, R, or MPlus. In this paper we present an Excel workbook that illustrates exploratory factor analysis via the principal axis factoring method and maximum likelihood estimation. Varimax and oblimin rotation of factor loadings is also demonstrated. We also illustrate several different confirmatory factor analysis models: (i) the unidimensional model, (ii) the multiple uncorrelated factors model, (iii) the multiple correlated factors model, and (iv) the bifactor model. Although we are not advocating Excel spreadsheets as the method of choice for factor analysis, we believe they are excellent tools for teaching the mechanics of factor analysis to psychology graduate students and researchers.
Published Version
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