Explain briefly how factor analysis is used to measure personality traits.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Factor analysis is a mathematical technique for reducing a large number of observations to a cluster of closely related variables (or traits). Both Cattell and McCrae and Costa used factor analysis to measure personality traits or factors.

B. Factor analysts determine intercorrelations among a large variety of measures taken from many people. Some of these intercorrelations reveal scores that tend to cluster together, suggesting a factor or unit of personality.

C. Next, analysts determine the extent to which each individual score contributes to the various factors. Correlations of scores with factors are called factor loadings.

D. For mathematically derived factors to have psychological meaning, the axes on which the scores are plotted are rotated into a mathematical relationship with each other. The oblique rotation method was advocated by Cattell; the orthogonal rotation method was used by McCrae and Costa, the Five-Factor theorists.

E. Traits generated through factor analysis may be either unipolar or bipolar. Unipolar traits are scaled from zero to some large amount, and bipolar traits extend from one pole to another with zero as a midpoint (i.e., extraversion and introversion).

F. Cattell's oblique rotation resulted in 16 first-order traits, whereas McCrae and Costa's orthogonal rotation yielded only five general traits, or the Five-Factor Theory.