UCLA

The factor analytic model is usually an approximation that may not represent well the latent structure of a set of variables. This paper studies the distortion to common factor analysis due to doublets, pairwise associations in variables over and above those postulated by the factor model. Three methodologies to estimate the parameters of the factor model while minimizing the influence of doublets on the solution, i.e., methodologies that are resistant to the effects of doublets and near doublets, proposed by Yates(1987), Mulaik(2010) and Bentler(2012), are reviewed and compared. Examples and a simulation verify that these methodologies achieve their goal.