4.2 Reading

This week, you will read two papers.

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Reference 1

Preacher, K. J., & MacCullum, R. C. (2003). Repairing Tom Swift’s electric factor analysis machine, Understanding Statistics 2(1) 13–43.

Questions 1

1. What is a latent variable?
   1. Give an example of a latent variable.
2. What is factor analysis, and what can you investigate using this method?
3. In the introduction, Preacher and Maccallum describe a “little jiffy” method of doing factor analysis. Briefly describe this little jiffy—or bad practice—method.
4. Briefly explain the key differences between Principal Component Analyses (PCA) and Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA).
5. What is the purpose of factor rotation?

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Reference 2

Kestilä, E. (2006). Is there demand for radical right populism in the Finnish electorate? Scandinavian Political Studies 29(3), 169–191.

Questions 2

1. What is the research question that the author tries to answer?
2. Briefly describe the characteristics of the Radical Right Parties (RRP) in Europe.
3. What are the two main explanations of support for RRP upon which this paper focuses?
4. Does the empirical part of the paper reflect the theoretical framework well? Why or why not?
5. According to the author, is Finland very different from other European countries on the main dependent variables?
6. What is the author’s conclusion (i.e., how does the author answer the research question)?