A Comparison of Five Tests for Completeness of Factor Extraction

In spite of the great development of factor analysis during the past half century and the elegance and sophistication of some of the present day methods, a number of basic problems have defied unequivocal solutions. Among these is the problem of a reliable test for completeness of factor extraction. A great variety of such tests has been proposed and a number of these have gained acceptance among factor analysts, mainly by virtue of yielding reasonable results rather than by possessing a sound statistical basis. These methods and their rationale have been reviewed in a recent summary (2) and it is therefore not necessary to discuss them in detail here.