Amazon.com description: Product Description: Latent variable models comprise an important branch of multivariate analysis. In particular, they are used to create a framework for reducing data from large scale statistical enquiries to manageable proportions. Factor analysis, a key latent variable model, has been effectively applied to problems in sociology, geology, chemistry, and psychology. This book provides a latent-variable framework for psychometricians and statisticians in their specification and use of suitable research models. Several chapters explore fields where the data are categorical and the latent variables are metrical.