- To determine whether a smaller set of uncorrelated variables
exists that will explain the relationships that exist between
the original variables
- To determine the number of underlying variables
- To interpret these new variables
- To evaluate individuals or experimental units in the data set
on those new variables- this is helpful in classification and
allows us to use FA as an individual directed technique
- To use these new variables in other statistical analyses of the
data (eg. Correlation analysis)