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A Factor Analysis of Certain Neurotic Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Charles I. Mosier
Charles I. Mosier*
Affiliation:
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
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Abstract

In an attempt to investigate the concept of neurotic tendency thirty-nine of the forty-two most discriminative items in the Thurstone Neurotic Inventory were administered as a questionnaire to a group of five hundred male college students. An analysis of the table of intercorrelations by Thurstone's centroid method showed that eight factors were sufficient to account for the observed intercorrelations with negligible residuals. The eight centroid factors were then transformed into a simple structure. It is concluded that a single trait of neurotic tendency cannot be postulated and tentative hypotheses are formed as to the nature of the primary traits revealed by the analysis.

Readministering the same test to the same students a week later showed a high consistency of response both on the test as a whole, and on the individual items.

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 1937, pp. 263 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © 1937 The Psychometric Society

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