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GATE 2022 XH5 (Psychology) – Question 64

Research Methods and Statistics · Correlational Analysis: Product moment and rank order correlation, partial and multiple correlation, biserial, point biserial, tetrachoric and phi, regression, factor analysis · 2 marks · Multiple select

Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct regarding exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique?

  1. It helps to reduce large number of variables into few numbers of factors.
  2. It helps researchers to investigate concepts that cannot easily be measured directly.
  3. It extracts maximum common variance from all variables and put them into a common score.
  4. A technique used to verify the factor structure of a set of observed variables.

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (A) It helps to reduce large number of variables into few numbers of factors.; (B) It helps researchers to investigate concepts that cannot easily be measured directly.; (C) It extracts maximum common variance from all variables and put them into a common score.

Explanation

Exploratory factor analysis reduces many variables to a few factors, helps to study constructs that cannot be measured directly, and extracts common variance into factor scores. Verifying a known factor structure is confirmatory factor analysis.