Analiza porównawcza efektywności metod redukcji zmiennych - analiza składowych głównych i analiza czynnikowa

Principal component analysis and factor analysis are the two most popular methods that allow to bring a large number of studied variables to a much smaller number of mutually independent principal components or factors. New variables (principal components or factors) retain a relatively large part of the information contained in the original variables, while each of them is a carrier of other substantive content. Both of these methods of reduction of the variables are often used, because too many pending attributes increases the range of the difficulty of interpretation. The main reason of undertaking the project is an attempt to show, that the abovementioned methods, although they are very similar, cannot be indentified. Despite the fact, that in both cases eigenvalues are calculated, factor loadings, etc., but still there are differences in the way of action, about which it must be remembered. So the usage of these names the variables are unacceptable. The article consists of three parts. The first and second chapter are devoted, respectively, to the analysis of the principal components and factor analysis, where a short characterization of these methods had been made. In the third chapter, on the basis of an empirical example, we compared the effectiveness of the principal components analysis and factor analysis.