EXERCISE 18.1: CONDUCTING AN EFA OBJECTIVE: To conduct and interpret an EFA using SPSS.

PROLOGUE: The SPSS data file “Geoscience Attitudes.sav” (see Appendix B)

contains undergraduate responses to a survey assessing attitudes and interests relat ed to the field of geoscience (geology, geography, and archaeology). Respondents rated their level of agreement to each of the following items using a five-point Likert-type rating scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Item 1: I have a good understanding of how scientists do research.
Item 2: I consider myself well skilled in conducting scientific research.
Item 3: I’ve wanted to be a scientist for as long as I can remember.
Item 4: I have a good understanding of elementary geoscience.
Item 5: I’m uncertain about what course of study is required to become a geoscientist.
Item 6: I am considering majoring in geoscience.
Item 7: I’d enjoy a career in geoscience.
Item 8: I plan on taking math courses that would prepare me to major in a science.
Item 9: I would enjoy going hiking or camping.
Item 10: I would enjoy boating.
Item 11: I’d prefer to work on a science project “in the field” than in a research laboratory.
Item 12: I enjoy reading science fiction novels.
Item 13: I enjoy reading nature and travel books and magazines.
Visually inspect the preceding geoscience attitude items. Which items would you expect to load on the same factors? What labels would you provide for these supposed factors?
Using the data set “Geoscience Attitudes.sav,” conduct an EFA on the 13 items.
Be sure to do the following:
• Choose principal axis factoring as your method of factor extraction.
• Choose Promax as the method of rotation.
• Ensure that the extraction of factors is determined by eigenvalues greater than 1.0.
• Select the option to produce a scree plot.
• Select the option to sort factor loadings by size.
• Ensure listwise deletion of missing cases.