Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Question 1

Which of the following statements is correct?

• Factor analysis takes a small number of variables and combines into a large number of factors
• Confirmatory factor analysis allows us to test a proposed model about how variables relate to each other
• Whereas exploratory factor analysis uses dimensions/factors to explain shared variance among variables in the analysis, confirmatory factor analysis uses dimensions/factors to account for all variance (shared and unique) in the model
• Factor analysis suggests that two variables are related, but doesn’t propose a shared third-variable to explain this association

Answer 1

Confirmatory factor analysis allows us to test a proposed model about how variables relate to each other

Question 2

When is CFA used?

Answer 2

When we have a proposed model to explain how variables relate, due to an underlying latent variable

Question 3

What is a latent variable?

Answer 3

a Third Variable

Question 4

Why does CFA include an error term?

Answer 4

Because the latent factor and the variable may not capture all of the things that influence all of the scores on that variable.

Question 5

What is scaling

Answer 5

Locking in the posible scores for things that cannot be measured (error terms and latent factors)

Question 6

Set factor loadings and error loadings to

Answer 6

1

Question 7

How does scaling work?

Answer 7

It locks in the possible range of scores so we can get a single estimate of results for our model

Question 8

What is a factor loading?

Answer 8

The arrow pointing at a measured variable