Читать книгу Exploratory Factor Analysis - W. Holmes Finch - Страница 15

There are a large number of computer software packages that can be used to conduct exploratory factor analysis. Many of these are general statistical software packages, such as SPSS, SAS, and R. Others are specifically designed for latent variable modeling, including Mplus and EQS. For many exploratory factor analysis problems, these various software packages are all equally useful. Therefore, you should select the one with which you are most comfortable, and to which you have access. On the other hand, when faced with a nonstandard factor analysis problem, such as having multilevel data, the use of specialized software designed for these cases might be necessary. In order to make this text as useful as possible, on the book website at study.sagepub.com/researchmethods/qass/finch-exploratory-factor-analysis, I have included example computer code and the annotated output for all of the examples included in the text, as well as additional examples designed to demonstrate the various analyses described here. I have attempted to avoid including computer code and output in the book itself so that we can keep our focus on the theoretical and applied aspects of exploratory factor analysis, without getting too bogged down in computer programming. However, this computer-related information does appear on the book website, and I hope that it will prove helpful to you.