Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Ανάλυση Συμπλεγμάτων	Διερευνητική Ανάλυση Παραγόντων (EFA)	Μοντελοποίηση Δομικών Εξισώσεων (SEM)
Πεδίο	Στατιστική	Στατιστική	Στατιστική
Οικογένεια	Latent structure	Latent structure	Latent structure
Έτος προέλευσης	1939–1967	—	1970
Δημιουργός	Robert C. Tryon (early development); Ward (1963) for hierarchical; MacQueen (1967) for k-means	—	Karl Jöreskog (LISREL framework, 1970s)
Τύπος	Unsupervised classification / grouping	Latent variable / dimension reduction	Latent variable / causal modeling
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Everitt, B. S., Landau, S., Leese, M. & Stahl, D. (2011). Cluster Analysis (5th ed.). Wiley. ISBN: 978-0470749913	Fabrigar, L. R., Wegener, D. T., MacCallum, R. C. & Strahan, E. J. (1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4(3), 272–299.	Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J. & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate Data Analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning. ISBN: 978-1473756540
Εναλλακτικές ονομασίες	clustering, unsupervised classification, data clustering, numerical taxonomy	common factor analysis, açımlayıcı faktör analizi, factor analysis	Yapısal Eşitlik Modellemesi (SEM), structural equation modelling, covariance structure analysis, latent variable modeling
Συναφείς	5	4	5
Σύνοψη	Cluster analysis is a family of unsupervised multivariate techniques that partition a set of objects or observations into internally homogeneous, mutually distinct groups — clusters — based on measured characteristics, without any prior knowledge of group membership. It is widely used in market segmentation, bioinformatics, psychology, and social science to reveal natural groupings in data.	Exploratory factor analysis reduces a large set of observed variables into a smaller number of latent common factors. It is widely used in scale development and psychometrics to uncover the dimensional structure that underlies a set of correlated items, without specifying that structure in advance.	Structural equation modeling is a multivariate statistical framework that simultaneously estimates a measurement model — relating observed indicators to latent constructs — and a structural model specifying directional or reciprocal relationships among those constructs. Rooted in the LISREL tradition developed by Karl Jöreskog in the 1970s, SEM is the standard tool for testing complex theoretical models in the social, behavioural, and management sciences.