factor analysis

…these performance differences, Spearman devised factor analysis, a statistical technique that examines patterns of individual differences in test scores. He concluded that just two kinds of factors underlie all individual differences in test scores. The first and more important factor, which he labeled the “general factor,” or g, pervades performance…

Factor analysis, an elaboration of Pearson’s coefficient of correlation, significantly reduces the number of complex variables to be considered. For instance, 50 different questions or measures of work alienation may in fact represent only seven or eight dimensions of alienation. Factor analysis reduces the variables…

…play in psychological testing (factor analysis involves the extraction of small numbers of independent factors from a large group of intercorrelated measurements). His method of factor analysis was fully presented in The Factors of the Mind (1940). Burt’s studies convinced him that intelligence was primarily hereditary in origin, although…

A leading American exponent of factor analysis for a comprehensive assessment of personality, Guilford constructed for this purpose batteries of tests, or factor inventories. His comprehensive, systematic theory of intellectual abilities, known as the structure of intellect, was outlined in The Nature of Human Intelligence (1967).