Power as a function of communality in factor analysis

Abstract

It was recently reported that the likelihood ratio test (LRT) in unrestricted factor analysis “has considerable power even when the sample size is only 10.” Here it is shown that (1) the power of this LRT depends on the communalities (h2), (2) the average h2 in the simulation on which this conclusion was based far exceeds any found in French’s review of 20 years of factor-analytic work, and (3) for more realistic h2, the power of the test barely exceeds the α level for N = 30 and remains poor for Ns as large as 100. © 1981, The psychonomic soceity, inc. All rights reserved.