Latent Variable Models and Factor Analysis (Kendall's Library of Statistics)

Latent variables, variables that cannot be observed directly, have numerous applications, particularly in psychometrics and sociology, and this new edition provides a comprehensive and unified treatment. Extensively revised and including much recent work, the book develops a framework for handling latent variables with standard statistical methods. It includes an introductory chapter, followed by a careful development of the General Linear Latent Variable Model (GLLVM). A large class of latent variable models turns out to be special cases of GLLVM, and the book devotes a number of chapters to specific models. The treatment aims to be mathematically complete and emphasizes questions of precision and goodness of fit. The book features numerous examples and concludes with a critique of some of the popular and widely used linear models.