How Factor Scores are Calculated in Factor Analysis

When you run factor analysis in the Analytics View, values like Factor1 in the table within the Data section are called “factor scores.”

For example, when using the default rotation type “Varimax (orthogonal),” these factor scores are calculated as: Original Data × Inverse of Correlation Matrix × Factor Loading Matrix. Incidentally, the product of the inverse correlation matrix and the factor loadings is called the “factor score coefficient matrix,” but this matrix is not currently displayed in Exploratory.