Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Διερευνητική Παραγοντική Ανάλυση (EFA) για την Ανάπτυξη Κλιμάκων	Επαληθευτική Παραγοντική Ανάλυση (Confirmatory Factor Analysis - CFA)
Πεδίο	Ψυχομετρία	Ψυχομετρία
Οικογένεια	Latent structure	Latent structure
Έτος προέλευσης	1904 (foundational); contemporary scale-development practice from 1990s onward	1969
Δημιουργός	Primarily Spearman (1904); psychometric scale application formalised by Thurstone (1930s)	Karl Gustav Jöreskog
Τύπος	Latent variable / dimension reduction	Hypothesis-testing latent variable model
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Costello, A. B. & Osborne, J. W. (2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10(7), 1–9.	Jöreskog, K. G. (1969). A general approach to confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 34(2), 183–202.
Εναλλακτικές ονομασίες	Açımlayıcı Faktör Analizi — Ölçek Geliştirme (EFA), psychometric EFA, scale construction factor analysis	CFA, confirmatory FA, measurement model, restricted factor analysis
Συναφείς	5	4
Σύνοψη	Exploratory Factor Analysis for Scale Development is the psychometric application of EFA in which an item pool is administered and the resulting response data are analysed to discover the latent factor structure underlying the items. Originating with Spearman's (1904) factor theory and formalised for applied scale construction by Costello and Osborne (2005) and Fabrigar and colleagues (1999), this variant imposes a stricter sample requirement (n ≥ 100, subject-to-item ratio ≥ 5) and a higher loading threshold (≥ 0.40) than general EFA, and it treats the recovered factor structure as a draft to be subsequently validated by confirmatory analysis.	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.