Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Επαληθευτική Παραγοντική Ανάλυση (Confirmatory Factor Analysis - CFA)	Διερευνητική Ανάλυση Παραγόντων (EFA)	Πολυεπίπεδη Μοντελοποίηση
Πεδίο	Ψυχομετρία	Στατιστική	Ερευνητική Στατιστική
Οικογένεια	Latent structure	Latent structure	Process / pipeline
Έτος προέλευσης	1969	—	1992
Δημιουργός	Karl Gustav Jöreskog	—	Anthony Bryk and Stephen Raudenbush
Τύπος	Hypothesis-testing latent variable model	Latent variable / dimension reduction	Method
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Jöreskog, K. G. (1969). A general approach to confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 34(2), 183–202.	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.	Bryk, A. S., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1992). Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. SAGE Publications.
Εναλλακτικές ονομασίες	CFA, confirmatory FA, measurement model, restricted factor analysis	common factor analysis, açımlayıcı faktör analizi, factor analysis	HLM, mixed-effects models, random effects models, MLM
Συναφείς	4	4	3
Σύνοψη	Confirmatory factor analysis tests a researcher-specified factor structure against observed data. Unlike exploratory approaches, the researcher decides in advance which indicators load on which latent factor, and the model is evaluated by how closely the implied covariance matrix reproduces the sample covariance matrix. CFA is central to scale validation, construct validity assessment, and measurement invariance testing.	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.	Multilevel modeling (also called hierarchical linear modeling, mixed-effects modeling) is a statistical framework for analyzing data organized in nested or clustered structures—students within schools, patients within hospitals, repeated measures within individuals. Developed by Bryk and Raudenbush (1992), it accounts for dependency among observations and partitions variance into levels (within-cluster and between-cluster), enabling valid inference and revealing context effects. Essential in education, medicine, organizational research, and any field where data have natural hierarchies.