5.2 Reading

Reference

Byrne, B. (2005). Factor analytic models: Viewing the structure of an assessment instrument from three perspectives, Journal of Personality Assessment, 85(1), 17–32.

Questions

1. What are the main differences between exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)?
2. In which circumstances should a researcher use EFA, and in which should they use CFA?
3. What are the five main limitations of EFA that CFA overcomes?
4. In which circumstances can a second order CFA model be useful?
5. Consider the following four techniques: PCA, EFA, CFA, second order CFA. For each of the following three research situations, which of the above techniques would you use and why?
   1. A researcher has developed a new questionnaire that should measure personality and wants to know how many factors underlie the items in their new measure.
   2. A researcher is modeling data collected with a seven-item scale that has been used since the 1960s to measure authoritarianism.
   3. A researcher has recorded highest completed level of education, years of education, and highest level of education attempted for all respondents in a survey. The researcher wants to include some operationalization of the concept of ‘education’ in their model but is unsure of which observed variable to use.