psych (version 1.6.12)

factor.rotate: ``Hand" rotate a factor loading matrix

Description

Given a factor or components matrix, it is sometimes useful to do arbitrary rotations of particular pairs of variables. This supplements the much more powerful rotation package GPArotation and is meant for specific requirements to do unusual rotations.

Usage

factor.rotate(f, angle, col1=1, col2=2,plot=FALSE,...)

Arguments

f

original loading matrix or a data frame (can be output from a factor analysis function

angle

angle (in degrees!) to rotate

col1

column in factor matrix defining the first variable

col2

column in factor matrix defining the second variable

plot

plot the original (unrotated) and rotated factors

...

parameters to pass to fa.plot

Value

Details

Partly meant as a demonstration of how rotation works, factor.rotate is useful for those cases that require specific rotations that are not available in more advanced packages such as GPArotation. If the plot option is set to TRUE, then the original axes are shown as dashed lines.

The rotation is in degrees counter clockwise.

References

http://personality-project.org/r/book

Examples

#using the Harman 24 mental tests, rotate the 2nd and 3rd factors 45 degrees
f4<- fa(Harman74.cor$cov,4,rotate="TRUE")
f4r45 <- factor.rotate(f4,45,2,3)
f4r90 <- factor.rotate(f4r45,45,2,3)
print(factor.congruence(f4,f4r45),digits=3) #poor congruence with original
print(factor.congruence(f4,f4r90),digits=3) #factor 2 and 3 have been exchanged and 3 flipped

#a graphic example
data(Harman23.cor)
f2 <- fa(Harman23.cor$cov,2,rotate="none")
op <- par(mfrow=c(1,2))
cluster.plot(f2,xlim=c(-1,1),ylim=c(-1,1),title="Unrotated ")
f2r <- factor.rotate(f2,-33,plot=TRUE,xlim=c(-1,1),ylim=c(-1,1),title="rotated -33 degrees")
op <- par(mfrow=c(1,1))