AN EMPIRICAL-COMPARISON OF FACTOR, IMAGE, COMPONENT, AND SCALE SCORES

The relationships among principal component, image component, three types of factor score estimates, and a scale score method were compared over different levels of variables (p), saturations (a(ij)), sample sizes (N), variable to component ratios (p/m), and pattern rotations. Scores were compared on both same (convergent) components and different (divergent) components. There were virtually no overall differences among score methods. The average correlation between matched scores across all conditions was.98. Comparisons within methods, that is, among component scores or among factor scores, generally were slightly higher than comparisons between methods. The scale score method, while correlating slightly lower (overall .96), was still highly correlated with both component and factor scores. When a score did depart from another, it usually occurred in one of the conditions of low component saturation, low sample size, low p/m ratio, or a combination of these conditions.