Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Συντελεστής Άλφα του Cronbach (Ανάλυση Αξιοπιστίας)	Επαληθευτική Παραγοντική Ανάλυση (Confirmatory Factor Analysis - CFA)	Διερευνητική Ανάλυση Παραγόντων (EFA)	Ανάλυση Κύριων Συνιστωσών	Μοντελοποίηση Δομικών Εξισώσεων (SEM)
Πεδίο	Στατιστική	Ψυχομετρία	Στατιστική	Μηχανική Μάθηση	Στατιστική
Οικογένεια	Latent structure	Latent structure	Latent structure	Machine learning	Latent structure
Έτος προέλευσης	1951	1969	—	2002	1970
Δημιουργός	Lee J. Cronbach	Karl Gustav Jöreskog	—	Jolliffe, I.T. (textbook); Pearson & Hotelling (origins)	Karl Jöreskog (LISREL framework, 1970s)
Τύπος	Reliability / internal consistency coefficient	Hypothesis-testing latent variable model	Latent variable / dimension reduction	Unsupervised dimensionality reduction	Latent variable / causal modeling
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334.	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.	Jolliffe, I.T. (2002). Principal Component Analysis (2nd ed.). Springer.	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	coefficient alpha, alpha reliability, internal consistency reliability, Güvenilirlik Analizi (Cronbach Alpha)	CFA, confirmatory FA, measurement model, restricted factor analysis	common factor analysis, açımlayıcı faktör analizi, factor analysis	Temel Bileşenler Analizi (PCA), PCA, principal components analysis, Karhunen-Loève transform	Yapısal Eşitlik Modellemesi (SEM), structural equation modelling, covariance structure analysis, latent variable modeling
Συναφείς	4	4	4	3	5
Σύνοψη	Cronbach's alpha is a coefficient of internal consistency that quantifies the degree to which a set of items on a scale measures the same underlying construct. Introduced by Lee J. Cronbach in 1951, it remains the most widely reported reliability index in social-science, health, and educational research.	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.	Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is an unsupervised dimensionality-reduction method — given its modern textbook treatment by Ian Jolliffe (2002) — that compresses high-dimensional data into fewer dimensions while preserving the maximum possible variance. It re-expresses correlated variables as a small set of uncorrelated principal components ordered by how much of the data's variation each one captures.	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.