On the Number and Nature of Common Factors Extracted by the Eigenvalue-One Rule Using BMDP VS SPSS X

Given nuances in the computer programs, unwary researchers performing a common factor analysis on the same set of data can be expected to arrive at very different conclusions regarding the number and nature of extracted factors if they use the BMDP, as opposed to the SPSS^x (or SAS), statistical software package. This is illustrated using six well-known empirical data sets from the psychology literature.