proc factor

[datalligence]

hi everyone,

can somebody please tell me which is the default correlation used in PROC FACTOR? is it pearson's or spearman's?

thanks,
romakanta

[datalligence]

can someone at SAS answer this?

i know that the correlation type can be specified with proc corr. but in factor analysis, i may have ratio/interval variables for which the pearson correlation is appropriate, or ordinal/rating variables for which the spearman correlation is appropriate.

so which correlation is used as a default when i use proc factor?

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
If you need a response quickly, then your best source of help is SAS Technical Support.

To send a question to Tech Support, go to http://support.sas.com/ and in the left-hand navigation pane, click on the link entitled "Submit a Problem".

cynthia

[1162]

Also, if you need a quick answer, you could output the correlation matrix from PROC FACTOR and compare it to different methods from PROC CORR to figure out which type of correlation is used.

I would bet pearson's correlation although I couldn't find anything that explicitly says so.