I am learning (or atleast trying to) factor analysis and I don't really understand what theories / thesis's can be proved with it. It is supposed to show the hidden connection (latents) between different varaibles in a dataset, though what can be proven (or disproven with that)
To make things clear, consider the following dataset: http://staff.bath.ac.uk/pssiw/stats2/personality.sav
The description is a set of responses from a personality questionnaire.
(the original website: http://staff.bath.ac.uk/pssiw/stats2/page16/page16.html )
You have qualities such as: orignal, helpful, reserved, reliable, tense (and a lot more).
What sort of thesis can be made about this dataset which is proven or disproven with factor analysis ?
note: This is (an obvious) rephrase of the original question.
