Does SPSS use factor analysis to perform principal component analysis? Are the factors generated from this analysis referred to as principal components?

Does the SPSS factor analysis routine with the extraction method principal component analysis conducting principal component analysis or factor analysis ?

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Alice Fujiwara
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FACTOR command and the corresponding Factor menu item does the classic PCA (Principal Component analysis) by default. There is no such thing as "PCA by means of factor analysis". But PCA can be thought of as a simplest and special form of factor analysis (FA). If you need to do classic FA ("common model FA") - not PCA - choose another extraction method in the procedure. Use maybe Principal axis method or another - but not Principal components or Alpha or Image. Brief comparison of the extraction methods is here.

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Kirill Orlov

Original Message:
Sent: Wed July 26, 2023 05:04 AM
From: Alice Fujiwara
Subject: Does SPSS use factor analysis to perform principal component analysis? Are the factors generated from this analysis referred to as principal components?

Does SPSS use factor analysis to perform principal component analysis? Are the factors generated from this analysis referred to as principal components?

Does the SPSS factor analysis routine with the extraction method principal component analysis conducting principal component analysis or factor analysis ?

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Alice Fujiwara
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