A psychologist wants to determine a parsimonious way to describe personality. She starts with a large number of questions and tries to find the smallest number of traits that will account for the variation in people's answers. Which technique will she use?

Question

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Factor analysis is a statistical technique used to identify patterns among a large number of variables and find the smallest number of factors that account for the variation in people's answers. It is commonly used in psychology to identify the underlying dimensions or traits that make up an individual's personality. Reaction formation, free association, and the autokinetic effect are not relevant to this process.

A Psychologist Wants to Determine a Parsimonious Way to Describe