COMM 3001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Correlation And Dependence, Factor Analysis, Nipple

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 3001
• Professor: Simon Vodrey

Document Summary

May 18 th lecture exploratory data analysis. The very early stages of most advanced statistical investigations can be characterized as fishing expeditions. Many variables are studied with the hope of identifying some kind of order among them which will deepen our understanding of the subject matter. Factor analysis is used as a data reduction technique. Depends to a great extent on the correlation between variables. The starting point of factor analysis is the correlation matrix. Factor analysis is a research technique that is used to measure validity. Validity concerns the degree to which the instrument (our variable or variables) measures what it is intended to measure. Factor analysis can tell us how many groups of items or factors there are in our instrument. In essence, we use factor analysis to determine whether a set of variables are measuring one single concept or multiple different concepts.