Best univocal estimates of orthogonal common factors

A general formulation is presented for obtaining conditionally unbiased, univocal common-factor score estimates that have maximum validity for the true orthogonal factor scores. We note that although this expression is formally different from both Bartlett's formulation and Heermann's approximate expression, all three, while developed from very different rationales, yield identical results given that the common-factor model holds for the data. Although the true factor score validities can be raised by a different non-orthogonal transformation of orthogonalized regression estimates—as described by Mulaik—the resulting estimates lose their univocality.     

Personality and risk-taking: common biosocial factors

The first part of this article describes a study of the relationships between personality and risk-taking in six areas: smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, driving, and gambling. The participants, 260 college students, were given self-report measures of risky behaviors in each of the six areas and the Zuckerman-Kuhlman five-factor personality questionnaire. Generalized risk-taking (across all six areas) was related to scales for impulsive sensation seeking, aggression, and sociability, but not to scales for neuroticism or activity. Gender differences on risk-taking were mediated by differences on impulsive sensation seeking. The second part discusses biological traits associated with both risk-taking and personality, particularly sensation seeking, such as the D4 dopamine receptor gene. the enzyme monoamine oxidase, and augmenting or reducing of the cortical evoked potential. Comparative studies show relationships between biological markers shared with other species and correlated behaviors similar to sensation seeking in humans. A biosocial model of the traits underlying risk-taking is presented.     

The common factors in fifty-two mental tests

An analysis by Thurstone's centroid method of the intercorrelations of fifty-two tests was carried to ten factors. Included were tests of social intelligence, Philip's attention tests, and Seashore's tests of musical ability. After rotation of axes, the most important factors appeared to pertain to operations conventionally alluded to by the following terms: verbal facility; spatial ability; numerical ability; attention; musical ability; and memory (or memory span). The social intelligence tests proved to be mainly tests of the verbal factor. A factorial sex difference was indicated by the superiority of men in tests of spatial ability.     

Constrained least squares estimators of oblique common factors

An expression is given for weighted least squares estimators of oblique common factors, constrained to have the same covariance matrix as the factors they estimate. It is shown that if as in exploratory factor analysis, the common factors are obtained by oblique transformation from the Lawley-Rao basis, the constrained estimators are given by the same transformation. Finally a proof of uniqueness is given.The research reported in this paper was partly supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Grant No. A6346.     

The determinacy of common factors in large item domains

Bounds are here developed for the multiple correlation of common factors with the items whose factors they are. It is then easy to see, under broad but not completely general conditions, the circumstances under which an infinite item domain does or does not perfectly determine selected subsets of its common factors.     

The relationship between external variables and common factors

A theorem is presented which gives the range of possible correlations between a common factor and an external variable (i.e., a variable not included in the test battery factor analyzed). Analogous expressions for component (and regression component) theory are also derived. Some situations involving external correlations are then discussed which dramatize the theoretical differences between components and common factors.Support by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC Grant No. A4640) and the University of British Columbia (UBC Humanities and Social Sciences Grant 26-9718) is gratefully acknowledged.This paper is based in part on the author's Ph.D. dissertation. I am particularly grateful to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Peter H. Schönemann. Thanks also to the editor and the anonymous reviewers, who contributed many helpful comments and suggestions.     

Early representations of ownership

To navigate a world filled with private property, children must be able to assign ownership information to objects and update that information when appropriate. In this chapter, the authors propose that children include ownership as an attribute of their object representations. Children can learn about ownership attributes either by witnessing owners acting on their property, a visual source, or by receiving information from the testimony of others, a verbal source. The authors consider the differences between these two forms of information and how they might conflict at the representational level, leading to difficulties in learning about ownership.     

Children's understanding of ownership transfers

An understanding of ownership entails the recognition that ownership can be transferred permanently and the ability to differentiate legitimate from illegitimate transfers. Two experiments explored the development of this understanding in 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year olds, using stories about gift-giving and stealing. The possibility that children use simple biases to identify owners, such as a first possessor, current possessor or a loan bias, was also investigated. Five-year olds appropriately acknowledged a permanent transfer of ownership in the case of giving but not stealing. Four-year olds allowed permanent transfers but struggled to differentiate legitimate from illegitimate transfers. Many 4-year olds allowed adults, but not children, to keep property that had been stolen. Two- and 3-year olds exhibited a first possessor bias for both stories. We conclude that, by 5 years of age, children possess a mature understanding of ownership transfer whereas younger children are prone to biases.     

A note on lower bounds for the number of common factors

It is shown that the lower bounds for the number of common factors, established by Guttman [1954] and modified by Kaiser [1961], cannot decrease as the number of observed variates is increased. The result implies that the lower bounds cannot become weaker if the number of observed variates is increased and the number of factors remains constant.This paper is based on a section of a thesis submitted to the Department of Statistics of the University of the Witwatersrand in fulfillment of the requirements for a M.Sc. degree.Presently at the National Institute for Personnel Research, Johannesburg, South Africa.     

Embodiment, ownership and disownership

There are two main pathways to investigate the sense of body ownership, (i) through the study of the conditions of embodiment for an object to be experienced as one's own and (ii) through the analysis of the deficits in patients who experience a body part as alien. Here, I propose that E is embodied if some properties of E are processed in the same way as the properties of one's body. However, one must distinguish among different types of embodiment, and only self-specific embodiment can lead to feelings of ownership. I address issues such as the functional role and the dynamics of embodiment, degrees and measures of ownership, and shared body representations between self and others. I then analyse the interaction between ownership and disownership. On the one hand, I show that there is no evidence that in the Rubber Hand Illusion, the rubber hand replaces the biological hand. On the other hand, I argue that the sense of disownership experienced by patients towards their body part cannot be reduced to the mere lack of ownership.     

On the interpretation of common factors: A criticism and a statement

The concept of simple structure is criticized for lack of objectivity and for failure to produce invariance of (a) factor loadings under change of battery, and (b) individual scores on primary traits under change of tests. It is also criticized on the grounds that simple structure yields at best the factors which were put in and that, by suitable manipulation of tests, any set of factors may be represented in a battery by tests which will yield a simple structure. A procedure for rotation is developed which locates the first rotated axis to pass through a cluster of tests which, by hypothesis, contain a common factor and to project all tests into a hyperplane orthogonal to this factor. The second factor is then located to pass through the projections of a second cluster of tests defining the second factor, and so on, until all hypothecated factors have been located. Any residual interrelations may then be rotated graphically to the most plausible arrangement.     

Universal processes and common factors in couple therapy and relationship education

Across nearly all cultures, sharing a lifelong committed relationship with an intimate partner comprises an almost universal and strongly held ambition. Nevertheless, cross-national data reliably indicate a high prevalence of relationship distress and dissolution, with adverse emotional and physical health consequences for adult partners and their children. This introduction to the special section summarizes findings regarding the effectiveness of couple therapy for treating general relationship distress, couple-based interventions for individual mental or physical health problems, and couple relationship education programs aimed at helping couples sustain a healthy committed relationship. Within each of these approaches, evidence regarding potential mediators of interventions' effectiveness is reviewed, and critical unanswered questions are highlighted. Discussion concludes with a brief introduction to each of the articles comprising this special section on universal processes in couple therapy and relationship education.     

Rumination as a common mechanism relating depressive risk factors to depression

Rumination was examined as a potential common mechanism linking risk factors with depression. Initially nondepressed individuals (N = 137) were assessed for presence of a ruminative response style and 4 other hypothesized risk factors for depression. They were followed for 2.5 years. Negative cognitive styles, self-criticism, dependency, neediness, and history of past depression were all significantly associated with rumination. Rumination mediated the predictive relationships of all risk factors except dependency with the number of prospective Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) major depressive episodes (MDEs; definite and subthreshold) during the follow-up period. In contrast, private self-consciousness did not mediate any relationships between risk factors and subsequent MDEs. Thus, rumination, as a special kind of self-focus, may act as a general proximal mechanism through which other vulnerability factors affect depression.     

Acquiring ownership and the attribution of responsibility

How is ownership established over non-owned things? We suggest that people may view ownership as a kind of credit given to agents responsible for making possession of a non-owned object possible. On this view, judgments about the establishment of ownership depend on attributions of responsibility. We report three experiments showing that people’s judgments about the establishment of ownership are influenced by an agent’s intent and control in bringing about an outcome, factors that also affect attributions of responsibility. These findings demonstrate that people do not just consider who was first to possess an object in judging who owns it, and are broadly consistent with the view that ownership is acquired through labor. The findings also suggest that rather than exclusively being the product of social conventions, judgments about the establishment of ownership over non-owned things also depend on the psychological processes underlying the attribution of responsibility.     

Exploring ownership in a developmental context

Ownership and economic behaviors are highly salient elements of the human social landscape. Indeed, the human world is literally constructed of property. Individuals perceive and manipulate a complex web of people and property that is largely invisible and abstract. In this chapter, the authors focus on drawing together information from a variety of disciplines, including legal theory, philosophy, psychology, and economics, to begin creating a coherent picture of the cognitive architecture that underlies ownership concepts. In doing so, the authors review theories of ownership and discuss recent research that highlights the unique contributions garnered by studying ownership in a developmental context.