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Three Multivariate Models: Factor Analysis, Latent Structure Analysis, and Latent Profile Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

W. A. Gibson
W. A. Gibson*
Affiliation:
Personnel Research Branch, The Adjutant General's Office
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Abstract

The factor analysis model and Lazarsfeld's latent structure scheme for analyzing dichotomous attributes are derived to show how the latter model avoids three knotty problems in factor analysis: communality estimation, rotation, and curvilinearity. Then the latent structure model is generalized into latent profile analysis for the study of interrelations among quantitative measures. Four latent profile examples are presented and discussed in terms of their limitations and the problems of latent metric and dimensionality thereby raised. The possibility of treating higher order empirical relations in a manner paralleling their various uses in the latent structure model is indicated.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , September 1959 , pp. 229 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © 1959 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

The latter model is anticipated in an earlier paper by Green [12].

†

The major portion of this paper was completed at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not to be construed as reflecting official Department of the Army policy.

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