Process / pipelineScale development
Factor Analysis for Scale Development
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a statistical method for discovering the underlying dimensional structure of a set of items or variables. Pioneered by Louis Thurstone in the mid-20th century, EFA is widely used to develop and validate psychometric scales by identifying groups of items that correlate together, thereby revealing latent dimensions of the construct being measured. The method reduces item sets to a smaller number of interpretable factors.
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Sources
- Thurstone, L. L. (1947). Multiple-Factor Analysis: A Development and Expansion of the Vectors of Mind (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226797557
- 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. DOI: 10.1037/1082-989X.4.3.272 ↗
- DeVellis, R. F. (2016). Scale Development: Theory and Applications (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN: 9781506330174