Exploratory Factor Analysis with SAS

Summary

Many of us, even those with years of experience using EFA, remain unclear on some of the nuances and details of what exactly is happening “under the hood” when we perform this analysis. Sticking with the default settings in most modern statistical software will generally not lead to using best practices. In PROC FACTOR, the default method of extraction is actually not even a method of factor analysis — it’s PCA! This is a solid choice if you were a psychologist in the 1960s, but in the 21st century, we can do better. So, pay attention: the extraction method must be specified in order for a factor analysis to be conducted.

As for which extraction method to use—our examples in this chapter demonstrated that most extraction techniques can ...