Primary Factors in a Study of Courtship
Robert F. Winch · American Sociological Review · 1947
* Manuscript received July 29, I947. 1 Relation between Courtship Behavior and Attitudes towards Parents among College Men, American Sociological Review, VIII (I943), i64-74; and Interrelations between Certain Social Background and Parent-Son Factors in a Study of Courtship among College Men, American Sociological Review, XI (1946), 333-4I. The data for this study were gathered in 1941. 2 The thirty-one variables are listed below in Table 2, which refers to the appropriate source for a discussion of each variable. 'Table i in Winch (I943), p. I7i, and Table i in Winch (I946), p. 335. See n. i. above. 'Cf. L. L. Thurstone, The Vectors of Mind, signed to comprehend a large number of constructs in terms of a smaller number called primary factors. The multiple factor analysis technique consists of performing two operations on a correlation matrix:5 (a) The matrix is factored to determine the number of dimensions in the domain. (b) The resulting reference vectors are rotated in order to enable their interpretation as meaningful primary factors.