Factor analysis and cluster analysis - their value and stability in social survey research

Abstract

The object of this paper is to present the results of some methodological work carried out in the Government Social Survey Department in the course of a number of surveys connected with education. Most of the work was undertaken in connection with an enquiry into sixth form education, but other data were collected in enquiries into undergraduates' attitudes towards school teaching as a career, a study of adults' and adolescents' attitudes toward smoking, and a followup study of the survey done for the Plowden committee on primary education.