Abstract
THE presidential address to Section J (Psychology) by Sir Godfrey Thomson is devoted to a critical consideration of certain logical weaknesses in the usaual methods of factorial analysis, and in particular of the custom of magnifying specific factors by the use of minimal communalities in the diagonal cells of the table of correlations or co-variances, a custom defended in the name of parsimony of factors. “My general attitude to factors", Sir Godfrey says, ”is that they are vivid additions to our vocabulary, but that there is a danger that they may be looked upon as much more real and individual mental entities than they actually are. They are, in my opinion, not at all unitary and only partially innate, being to a very considerable extent, as I think, built up in the individual mind by many external influences."
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Nature of the Mind's ‘Factors'. Nature 164, 393–394 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164393b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164393b0