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	Analisi Fattoriale	Modellizzazione di Equazioni Strutturali
Campo	Statistica per la ricerca	Statistica per la ricerca
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1931	1921
Ideatore	Louis Leon Thurstone	Sewall Wright
Tipo	Method	Method
Fonte seminale	Thurstone, L. L. (1947). Multiple Factor Analysis. University of Chicago Press.	Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (1973). LISREL: A general computer program for estimating a linear structural equation system. Research Bulletin 73-5. University of Stockholm.
Alias	EFA, CFA, latent variable modeling	SEM, path analysis, latent variable modeling, causal modeling
Correlati	3	3
Sintesi	Factor analysis is a statistical technique for identifying latent (unobserved) dimensions underlying observed variables, developed by Louis Leon Thurstone in the 1930s and formalized by Jöreskog (1969). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) discovers unknown factor structure from data; confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tests hypothesized relationships between observed and latent variables. Essential in psychometrics (test development), organizational research (measuring constructs like leadership style), and biomedicine (identifying disease subtypes), factor analysis reduces dimensionality while revealing conceptual organization in multivariate data.	Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a comprehensive statistical framework combining path analysis (Sewall Wright, 1921) and confirmatory factor analysis to test complex causal models linking observed and latent variables. Formalized by Jöreskog (1973) with LISREL software, SEM enables simultaneous estimation of measurement relationships (how variables measure latent constructs) and structural relationships (how constructs influence outcomes), making it powerful for theory testing in psychology, epidemiology, organizational research, and health sciences where complex mediation, moderation, and latent processes require integrated analysis.