Conventional Factor Analysis (SPSS, SAS) | Rasch Residual Factor Analysis (Winsteps) | |
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Data: | Ordinal observations. | Standardized residuals. |
Motivation: | To explain the data. | To discover contrasting sub-structures by decomposing the residual variance. |
Method: | Common factor. | Principal components. |
Applied to: | Items. | Items or Persons. |
Interpretation: | Each common factor is one "dimension". | Each principal component is a contrast between "types". Each "type" may be a "dimension". |
Optimum result: | One huge dimension explains everything. | Small chance-sized contrasts, i.e., no residual sub-structures. |
Cautionary result: | Many small dimensions indicate construct chaos. | A contrast explaining more variance than the measures indicates construct collision. |
Cautionary action: | Discard the data as invalid. | Rescore observations, segment items/persons. |
Rotation: | Yes - to simplify factor interpretation. | No - to preserve absolute contrast sizes. |
Oblique: | Yes - to optimize commonalities. | No - to preserve contrast uniqueness. |
Missing data: | Listwise or pairwise deletion. This can distort factor structure. | Imputed as fitting data, i.e., zero residuals. This can attenuate contrasts. |
For more information,
The Impact of Rasch Item Difficulty on Confirmatory Factor Analysis , S.V. Aryadoust
Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2009, 23:2 p. 1207
Confirmatory factor analysis vs. Rasch approaches: Differences and Measurement Implications, M.T. Ewing, T. Salzberger, R.R. Sinkovics
Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2009, 23:1 p. 1194-5
Conventional factor analysis vs. Rasch residual factor analysis, Wright, B.D.
2000, 14:2 p. 753.
Rasch Analysis First or Factor Analysis First? Linacre J.M.
1998, 11:4 p. 603.
Factor analysis and Rasch analysis, Schumacker RE, Linacre JM.
1996, 9:4 p.470
Too many factors in Factor Analysis? Bond TG.
1994, 8:1 p.347
Comparing factor analysis and Rasch measurement, Wright BD.
1994, 8:1 p.350
Factor analysis vs. Rasch analysis of items, Wright BD.
5:1 p.134
Conventional factor analysis vs. Rasch residual factor analysis. Wright, B.D. Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2000, 14:2 p. 753.
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