Despite the widespread use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research, researchers often make questionable decisions when conducting these analyses. This article reviews the major design and analytical decisions that must be made when conducting a factor analysis and notes that each of these decisions has important consequences for the obtained results. Recommendations that have been made in the methodological literature are discussed. Analyses of 3 existing empirical data sets are used to illustrate how questionable decisions in conducting factor analyses can yield problematic results. The article presents a survey of 2 prominent journals that suggests that researchers routinely conduct analyses using such questionable methods. The implications of these practices for psychological research are discussed, and the reasons for current practices are reviewed.

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Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research.

Norms have never been absent from the study of international politics, but the sweeping “ideational turn” in the 1980s and 1990s brought them back as a central theoretical concern in the field. Much theorizing about norms has focused on how they create social structure, standards of appropriateness, and stability in international politics. Recent empirical research on norms, in contrast, has examined their role in creating political change, but change processes have been less well-theorized. We induce from this research a variety of theoretical arguments and testable hypotheses about the role of norms in political change. We argue that norms evolve in a three-stage “life cycle” of emergence, “norm cascades,” and internalization, and that each stage is governed by different motives, mechanisms, and behavioral logics. We also highlight the rational and strategic nature of many social construction processes and argue that theoretical progress will only be made by placing attention on the connections between norms and rationality rather than by opposing the two.

/pdf/international-norm-dynamics-and-political-change-37ig9r9dlq.pdf

International Norm Dynamics and Political Change

Reanalyses of a number of studies of self-reported mood indicate that Positive and Negative Affect consistently emerge as the first two Varimax rotated dimensions in orthogonal factor analyses or as the first two second-order factors derived from oblique solutions. The two factors emerged with varyi

Toward a consensual structure of mood.

Objectives: Lao Juan (LJ, 劳倦) is a syndrome described in Chinese medicine (CM) that manifests with : Lao Juan (LJ, 劳倦) is a syndrome described in Chinese medicine (CM) that manifests with fatigue, fever, spontaneous sweating, indigestion, work-induced pain, weakness of the limbs, and shortness of breath. fatigue, fever, spontaneous sweating, indigestion, work-induced pain, weakness of the limbs, and shortness of breath. The present study was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of a Lao Juan Questionnaire (LJQ). The present study was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of a Lao Juan Questionnaire (LJQ). Methods: A total of 151 outpatients and 73 normal subjects were asked to complete the LJQ. Seventy-three normal subjects A total of 151 outpatients and 73 normal subjects were asked to complete the LJQ. Seventy-three normal subjects were additionally asked to complete the Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS). Twelve clinicians determined whether the were additionally asked to complete the Chalder Fatigue Scale (CFS). Twelve clinicians determined whether the 151 outpatients exhibited LJ or not. The internal consistency and construct validity for the LJQ were estimated using 151 outpatients exhibited LJ or not. The internal consistency and construct validity for the LJQ were estimated using data from the outpatient subjects. The CFS data were used to examine the concurrent validity of the LJQ. Total LJQ data from the outpatient subjects. The CFS data were used to examine the concurrent validity of the LJQ. Total LJQ scores and the clinicians' diagnoses of the outpatients were used to perform receiver operating characteristics (ROC) scores and the clinicians' diagnoses of the outpatients were used to perform receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses and to defi ne an optimum cut-off score for the LJQ. curve analyses and to defi ne an optimum cut-off score for the LJQ. Results: The 19-item LJQ had satisfactory internal : The 19-item LJQ had satisfactory internal consistency (α=0.828) and concurrent validity, with signifi cant correlations between the LJQ and the CFS subscales. consistency (α=0.828) and concurrent validity, with signifi cant correlations between the LJQ and the CFS subscales. In the test of construct validity using principal component analysis, a total of six factors were extracted, and the overall In the test of construct validity using principal component analysis, a total of six factors were extracted, and the overall variance explained by all factors was 59.5%. In ROC curve analyses, the sensitivity, specifi city, and area under the variance explained by all factors was 59.5%. In ROC curve analyses, the sensitivity, specifi city, and area under the curve were 76.0%, 59.2%, and 0.709, respectively. The optimum cut-off score was defi ned as six points. curve were 76.0%, 59.2%, and 0.709, respectively. The optimum cut-off score was defi ned as six points. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the LJQ is a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating LJ. Our results suggest that the LJQ is a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating LJ. KEYWORDS Chinese medicine, chronic fatigue syndrome, Chinese medicine-pattern Chinese medicine, chronic fatigue syndrome, Chinese medicine-pattern

Development and Validation of A

Teacher efficacy: A construct validation.

Applied factor analysis

This is R. J. Rummel's fourth book in a series devoted to genocide and government mass murder, or what he calls democide. He presents the primary results, in tables and figures, as well as a historical sketch of the major cases of democide, those in which one million or more people were killed by a regime. In Death by Government, Rummel does not aim to describe democide itself, but to determine its nature and scope in order to test the theory that democracies are inherently nonviolent. Rummel discusses genocide in China, Nazi Germany, Japan, Cambodia, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Pakistan. He also writes about areas of suspected genocide: North Korea, Mexico, and feudal Russia. His results clearly and decisively show that democracies commit less democide than other regimes. The underlying principle is that the less freedom people have, the greater the violence; the more freedom, the less the violence. Thus, as Rummel says, -The problem is power. The solution is democracy. The course of action is to foster freedom.- Death by Government is a compelling look at the horrors that occur in modern societies. It depicts how democide has been very much a part of human history. Among other examples, the book includes the massacre of Europeans during the Thirty Years' War, the relatively unknown genocide of the French Revolution, and the slaughtering of American Indians by colonists in the New World. This riveting account is an essential tool for historians, political scientists, and scholars interested in the study of genocide.

Death by Government

Based on theory and previous results, three hypotheses are posed: (1) Libertarian states have no violence between themselves. (2) The more libertarian two states, the less their mutual violence. (3) The more libertarian a state, the less its foreign violence. These hypotheses are statistically tested against scaled data on all reported international conflict for 1976 to 1980; and where appropriate, against a list of wars from 1816 to 1974, and of threats and use of force from 1945 to 1965. The three hypotheses are found highly significant. Tests were also made for contiguity as an intervening variable and were negative. Finally, two definitions of “libertarian” are tested, one involving civil liberties plus political rights, the other adding in economic freedom. Both are highly positive, but economic freedom is also found to make a significant added reduction in the level of violence for a state overall or between particular states.

Libertarianism and International Violence

Thousallds of variables have been proposed to explain or describe the complex variety and i~lterco~lnectiolls of social and illternatio~lal relations Perhaps an equal number of hypotheses and theories linkillg these variables have been suggested The few basic variables and propositions central to ullderstalldillg remain to be determined The systematic dependencies and correlations among these variables have been charted only roughly, if at all, and many, if not most, call be ~lleasurecl only on presence-absence or rank order scales And to take the data on any one variable at face value is to beg questions of validity, reliability, and comparability Confronted with entangled behavior unkno\vn interdependencies, nlasses of qualitative and cluantitative variables, and bad data, many social scientists are turning toward factor analysis to uncover major social and internatio~lal pa t terns Vactor hundred variables, conlpellsate for random error and invalidity, and disentangle complex interrelationships into their major and distinct regularities Factor analysis is not without cost, ho\\-ever It is lnathe~llatically complicated and entails diverse and numerous consideratio~~s in application Its technical vocabulary includes strange terms such as e i g e ~ z ~ n l u e s , iv iate , dim,e~zsions, orthogonal, londingr, and co~rrn11~nality Its results usually absorb a dozen or so pages in a given report, leaving little room for a methodological iiltroductio~l or explanation of terms Add to this the fact that students do not ordinarily learn factor allalysis in their formal training, and the stun is the major cost of factor analysis: most laymen, social scientists, and policy-makers find the nature ant1 significance of the results incomprehensible The problem of cornn~unicati~lg factor analysis is especially crucial for peace research Scholars in this field are clraw~l An invitec1 paper for The Jolrrncll of Conflict frolll clisciplines alld professions, alld Resolt~tion Prepared in connection with research supported by the National Sciencc Fotunf ? ~ them are acquainted with thr dation GS-1230 For many helpful comments method made on a previous draft I wish to thank As our empirical kllowledge of conflict Henry Kariel, hlichael Haas, Robert Hefner: processes, behavior, conditions, and pattelns \Voocly Pitts, and J David Singer Portions of the article are taken from Rummel ( 1968) beconle illcreasi~lgly expressed in factor"or a bibliography of applications of factor analvtic terms, those who need this knowlanalysis in the social sciences (esclucling psyedge lnost in order to make illforlned chology), see Rummel (1968) A bibliography of a ~ ~ l i c a t i o n s to conflict and inte~national decisions may be those who are most A A

Rudolph Rummel

Papers

Applied factor analysis

Death by Government

Libertarianism and International Violence

Understanding factor analysis

Understanding Conflict and War