(1) Using samples that are too small (say, fewer than 30 subjects), which makes it very likely that the correlation coefficients and factors obtained from the study will not accurately depict what is...

(1) Using samples that are too small (say, fewer than 30 subjects), which makes it very likely that the correlation coefficients and factors obtained from the study will not accurately depict what is happening in the corresponding populations. (2) Failing to include a sufficiently broadrange of variables in the study. Factor analysis reduces those variables chosen by the researcher to a smaller set of dimensions, and an incomplete or misleading set of variables will yield a misleading set of factors. (3) Naming a factor in a way that supports the researcher’s theory, when other names are as or more reasonable. See footnote 2 in this chapter