causal analysis

an attempt to draw dependable inferences about cause-and-effect relationships from research data. Encompassing a variety of methods (e.g., path analysis, structural equation modeling), such analyses differ in the degree to which they are statistically complex and the degree to which causal inferences from them are, in fact, justified.

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Psychology term of the day

December 26th 2024

factor method

any means by which latent variables (factors) are extracted or identified in factor analysis. Widely used factor methods include principal components analysis, which seeks to find a set of linear combinations called components that help explain the correlations among variables; and principal-axis factor analysis, in which underlying dimensions or factors are sought to explain the correlations among variables after separating out communality and putting aside the error variance in a set of variables.