Some comparisons of the multiple-factor and the bi-factor methods of analysis

Abstract

Bi-factor and multiple-factor analyses of the same data are compared in two respects. First, two criteria are suggested for determining when the factorization is adequate. This problem being more acute for the centroid method than for the bi-factor method, the latter is used primarily for comparison only. It is shown also that the omission from the simple structure of entries smaller than .10 yields a pattern which is a poorer fit to the original correlations than is the bi-factor pattern. Second, the second-order general factor obtained from the intercorrelations of the primaries is found to be highly correlated with the general factor of the bi-factor pattern.