On the Use of Factor Scores for Prediction

There are two types of indeterminacy problems in factor analysis: the indeterminacy of the parameters, which is also known as the problem of identification, and the indeterminacy of the factor scores. The second problem, which will be treated here, is of great importance to the social sciences, given that the factor analysis model was historically developed with the theory of measuring intelligence, where the main interest was to determine one person's intelligence numerically. As a consequence of the indeterminacy of factor scores we will show, by means of a numerical example, that any criterion, including the dates of easter sunday, can be perfectly predicted by the intelligence factors.